What Do You Get When
by oxsilvermoonxo
Summary: ...you take an all-boys school, pick it up, plonk it in the middle of a girls school? Chaos, love, friendships, rivalry, drama, tears, joy, and painful memories brought back to the surface. AU, Rated for some language, and typical, teenage angst.
1. Sister school! We have a sister school?

**Disclaimer: No, if you recognize it, i probably don't own it. Please don't sue. Thank you.**

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Chapter 1

**Sister school? We have a sister school?**

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**"Damnit," she groaned to herself, as she ran across the village, hurriedly swallowing her breakfast.

"Of all the days to sleep in. Now I'm gonna be frikkin' late."

No, there wasn't anyone next to her. She just talked to herself. She continued.

"And sensei had specifically told us to get there early for some special announcement or somethin' too. Ugh" The brown haired girl swore again as she quickened her pace.

"I better take a shortcut," she muttered, and continued racing through the streets, occasionally yelling out apologies as she almost knocked over the other pedestrians.

oOo

It was a beautiful day out, with clear, blue skies, interrupted every now and then by a small, cotton-white cloud. It was a brilliant contrast to the bright green of the trees, and the birds were singing their songs throughout the whole village.

Neji Hyuga breathed in, enjoying the fresh, early fall air as he calmly walked towards his school, Konoha Nin Academy for Boys (it was such a mouthful that most the students just referred to it as KoNAB)**. **He wondered what the supposedly big announcement they'd be announcing that day could be. The school year had just barely started a few weeks ago, yet Kakashi had asked them all to come early that day, as they were going to be very important news that would affect all of them. Tch. Kakashi was telling _them_ to come on time? _He_ was the one always making his students wait up to hours for him, just to start class. There was this one time-

"Ahh! Look out!" a voice shrieked behind him. Neji was caught off guard, and before he could so much as turn around, something crashed into him, and he hit the ground. Hard.

"Sorry about that! I'm in a hurry!" the voice called, and all Neji saw was a flash of brown hair in two buns, and a pink shirt before the person who knocked him over disappeared, leaving behind a trail of dust.

Neji rubbed his head where he had hit it against the ground. _God,_ he thought. _Even if you're in a hurry, the least you could do is give a little notice before you come careening around the corner._ Grumbling about people who didn't look where they were going, Neji picked up his stuff and continued towards school.

oOo

Panting, the girl skidded around the corner, coming to a stop in front of Konoha Nin Girls' Academy, gasping for breath. _I made it_, she thought. All her mad dashing through the streets, along with her little shortcut, had actually got her here at about the same time she normally would've arrived, if she had left on time, of course.

"Tenten!" shouted a girl with pink hair, waving an arm in the air. She was standing at the entrance with another girl, with blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Tenten grinned, as she ran over to two of her friends. They'd been tight friends since they first met on the very first day of school two years ago, when Tenten, having transfered from another district, got lost in the intricate hallways. While she was a grade older than them, they were still very close.

"Hey guys," she said, her cheeks still flushed from her little early morning marathon.

"You ok?" asked Ino, "You look like you just ran the 400m dash."

"That's one way to put it," panted Tenten. "I thought I was going to be late." At that, Sakura started laughing.

"So you ran all the way here from your house?"

"Basically. Though I took a shortcut."

"And it actually _worked_?" remarked Ino with a raised eyebrow. She was no doubt remembering the time when they went shopping together with their other friend Hinata, and one of Tenten's "shortcuts" managed to not only get them further away from home, but impossibly lost as well.

"Shut up," giggled Tenten, knowing what Ino must be recalling. "We found our way back eventually that time, right?"

"Yeah, _eventually_, but only because of Hinata," added Sakura.

"Where is she, anyway?"

"Who, Hinata?"

"_Noooo,_ your great-_uncle_. Who else?"

"She went inside to save us seats in the auditorium, and told us to stay here and wait for you. Although, looking at the number of students we have these days, she didn't really need to bother, but you know Hinata." Ino shrugged.

"Then come on! Let's go! Now we really are going to be late!" laughing, the three girls jogged in the direction of the Auditorium.

oOo

Neji walked into the gym, where all the students had gathered, waiting for the news. He could see their Hokage with Shikamaru, who had been _coughblackmailedcough_ into the student counsel, talking in the corner of the stage with a woman who had her back turned to them. Neji frowned. _Wonder who that is,_ he thought. At this school, even the teachers were all male.

"Hyuga! Over here!" someone called, and he turned to see a group of his friends waving at him. As he made his way over to them, he heard Naruto and Sasuke arguing over something, as usual.

"It's true! I heard it with my own two ears!"

"Not saying much coming someone like from you, dobe."

"What was that supposed to mean?"

"Seems like the dobe has no ears, and no brain either."

"Shut up, teme, what would you know?"

"A whole lot more than you."

"Teme."

"Dobe."

"Teme!"

"Dobe."

"TEM-"

"Uh, guys?" interrupted Kiba. "Are you planning on stopping anytime soon?"

"Ask Teme here, he started it," whined Naruto.

"You continued it," smirked Sasuke.

"Teme!"

"Dobe." came the calm reply.

"STOP IT!" yelled Kiba, his shout accentuated with a bark from the small dog next to him.

"Ah, the youthful Neji-kun has arrived!" said Lee dramatically.

"Hey. What is it this time?" asked Neji, with a nod to indicate the "Teme/Dobe/Shut-the-hell-up/bark bark" conversation going on next to them. Chouji shrugged, while stuffing another handful of chips into his mouth.

"Who knows? Those two could probably argue about anything for hours without even trying. And Kiba could dive in at any given point and make them all the louder."

"Don't we know it," sighed Shikamaru, coming up behind them. "How troublesome."

"You'd think you'd be used to it by now," remarked Neji. "Go figure."

"Well, it's true, but that's not what I meant." The lazy student president grimaced.

"So what's the big news Shikamaru-kun?" Asked Lee. Shikamaru had a rather pained look on his face.

"You'll find out in about thirty seconds, the assembly's about to start."

oOo

"Hey guys," said a girl with long, navy tinted hair, and pale, pupil-less eyes. "You should hurry up and sit down, Shizune-sensei is going to begin soon."

"Thanks Hinata," replied Tenten, as she sat next to her. Sakura and Ino joined them, and they all looked up expectantly at the stage.

"Hey," Ino whispered to Hinata. "Who's that guy up there? I thought all the teachers here were women. And why isn't the Hokage-sama up there?"

"Yeah, isn't she the one who usually makes the announcements?" added Tenten. Hinata shrugged, and put her finger to her lips, as a sign to be quiet.

"Ok, settle down ladies!" called the rather young looking woman onstage. She gestured to the white-haired man next to her. "This is Jiraya-sensei, and he's representing our brother school, Konoha Nin Academy for Boys today. But before we get to that, we have a few other things to say." She waited for the murmurings that filled the room to stop.

"Well, you're probably all wondering why we've called you here, you all must've noticed by now how few students we have." She paused, to look around at the room. "Many of us have transferred to other schools, or moved away." She went on to talk about how she didn't want to pressure the rest of the students into feeling that it was their obligation to stay at this school, despite its long history and high esteem, something about the elevated level of expectations... Tenten sighed, and started zoning out. _Hmm. I wonder how long this is gonna take_, she mused. There were some homework problems she wasn't sure she got right, and wanted some time before class to go over them. _Maybe I can get Sakura to give me the answers. She's always getting 100 on tests and things. _Tenten's mind started drifting further and further away….

oOo

"WHAT?"

Shouts of disbelief and confusion filled the gym. _The Hokage's retiring? But then what will happen to the school? What's going on?_

"Please, settle down," said the old man on stage. "I assure you, you will be left in good hands." He beckoned to the woman beside him. "This is Tsunade-sensei, one of my former students, and current Hokage at our very prestigious sister school. As of today, she will be taking over in my place as Hokage of this academy." The hall was instantly filled with the buzzing of astonished murmurs, and talking could be heard throughout the room.

"But she's a girl! What would she know about an all boys school?"

"Didn't he just say she was the Hokage at another school?"

"Sister school? We have a sister school?"

"Yea, it's called Konoha Girls Academy. You know, just like ours, except for girls, you dimwit."

"Dude! Look at her boobs! Their _huge! _You think she got surgery on them?"

"Is that really the sort of thing to be thinking about right now?"

"She looks _waaay_ too young to be Hokage. How old do you reckon she is?"

"You really think she's good enough to run _two _schools at once?"

"Silence!" roared Tsunade suddenly. That shut them up pretty quick.

"I am to be your new Hokage, and I will NOT tolerate disrespect, towards myself, to any of my teachers, your new school ground property, or any of your new classmates. Those who disobey the rules will be punished as seen fit. Do not expect any special treatment just because you are to be new students, of sorts." She grinned wolfishly at the sight of their faces, as the "big news" seemed to sink in.

"WHAT?"

"Huh? What's going on? I don't get it!" cried Naruto.

"Dobe. Isn't it obvious?"

"No. what does she mean, new school grounds, new classmates, new teachers? What, are we changin' schools or something?"

"Idiot," muttered Sasuke.

"No, Naruto." replied Neji slowly. "It means-"

"We're combining with a girl's school," groaned Shikamaru, sinking back in his chair.

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**Pleaase please tell me what you think! reviews are good! please review! criticism is much welcomed . as long as it's somewhat true, of course. :) But seriously, tell me what you think, even if its just two words ("it sucks" u.u) haha hope you read the next chapters ^^  
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	2. A Little Heads' Up, Why Don't Cha

Chapter 2

**A Little Heads' Up, Why Don't Cha

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_Ugh…I'm still kinda hungry. Wish I'd eaten more breakfast…_

"And now, because we have less than two hundred students left with us…"

_Wait, did I even _have_ breakfast? I mean, I was in such a hurry this morning…_

"…advanced curriculum, but in spite of that fact, the teachers and faculty…"

_Oh, yeah, there was that piece of toast. But I mean, come on, it wasn't nearly enough. So insignificant that I even forgot about it for a minute._

"…married next month, as you all may know. And Takada sensei has gotten a job offer in…"

_And plus, I got all that exercise dashing to school like that…_

"So. Moving on, because we have such few students with us now, and the number of teachers is also decreasing, the Board of Education has decreed…"

_I should probably go grab something from a vending machine or something. Shit, I hope I brought my wallet with me…it would suck if I left it at home…_

"...On the other hand, our brother school, KoNAB, has the predicament of..."

_Maybe I can borrow some money from Hinata. I paid for her lunch last week after all…_

"…hokage. In fact, that's where Tsunade-sama is right now." Sakura's jade green eyes went wide, as she (who was actually paying attention, unlike a certain someone daydreaming about pop tarts and waffles in the seat next to her) caught on to what this must mean.

"No way," she whispered, "No way, no way."

"What?" whispered Ino.

"Therefore, it has been decided that…" Shizune-sensei paused dramatically.

"Konoha Nin Academy for Boys will be moving into our facilities tomorrow morning."

oOo

The entire auditorium was in uproar.

"GIRLS SCHOOL?" yelled Naruto. "WHAT THE HECK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO AT A _GIRLS _SCHOOL? WE'RE GUYS!"

"No, really?" deadpanned Neji, while Kiba loudly smacked his forehead with his palm. "We're _combining_ with a girls school."

"Why the hell are we going to mix with a bunch of silly, stupid girls?" grumbled Sasuke. There was a good reason he came to an all-male school in the first place.

"Weren't you listening? The Hokage's retiring."

"And besides, ya never know. There might be a few hot ones," said Kiba grinning. "And dear little Sasuke here will probably gain a few more fan girls, if that's even possible, anyway." Sasuke spared him a disgusted glare. Kiba knew full well how Sasuke had bad past experiences with such "annoying _things_".

"Ahh!" cried Lee. "Our dreary, dull school shall be enlightened with the beautiful youth of young ladies!"

"Careful there Lee," muttered Shikamaru. "You're starting to sound perverted pedophile. _Don't_ end up in the same direction as Jiraya."

"Oh no! I am so very remorseful for such a mistake, Shikamaru-kun."

"Just shut up."

"So, I guess this opens a whole new door of possibilities for a girlfriend, huh?" grinned Kiba, elbowing his friends. Neji frowned.

"What's the point? It's not like they're actually useful in any way. And I don't particularly care to waste my time, nor money."

"Tch. It's called..." Kiba paused, and made a dramatic sweeping gesture with his hands, and staring off into an imaginary distance with a flourish. "...Romance." Neji punched him, which broke his dignified pose, and they all started cracking up.

"Well said, Kiba-kun!" Lee said, with a nice guy pose.

"He was joking, you idiot." Neji rolled his eyes, but couldn't quite keep a small smirk off his lips.

"Aww, but he's right. Neji, you're so cold." laughed Naruto. "Stop. Accept it. Love." he said in a dramatic voice, and his own pose, with one hand upturned at his forehead, the other outstretched before him, leaning against Sasuke's shoulder as if he was about to faint. "Otherwise you'll turn out like the Teme sulking in the corner over here." He snickered, in his normal voice.

"I am not sulking!" Sasuke glared at Naruto and shoved the blonde boy off.

"Aww, you guys, cut Sasuke a break," said Chouji. "Can't you see he's busy planning his gravestone? It'll say something like, 'Sasuke Uchiha, genius at everything, mobbed to death by females at new school.'" They all started laughing.

"Tch. Some friends _you _are." muttered the said sulking boy.

oOo

At those last words, Tenten was jolted back into reality.

"Wait, what?" she asked. "Did she just say what I think she…?"

"Depends on what you think she said." replied Sakura. "But if you heard that a bunch of smelly boys are gonna move in here tomorrow then yeah, that's what she said."

Ino squealed. "I can't wait to see all the hot guys!" Hinata and Tenten rolled their eyes fighting back grins. Such a typical Ino comment.

"Why are they coming here though?" asked Tenten. "Why aren't we moving there? Not that I'm complaining or anything." She added quickly.

"Shizune-sensei said because we have newer equipment, and more space. Plus, seeing as Tsunade-sama's gonna be the Hokage, so…" Hinata's small voice trailed off.

"Wait, _Tommorow? _As in, in _less than twenty-four hours?_"

"Yeah. seriously. Give a little heads ups, why don't you."

"Things will be very...strange with so many boys," said Hinata.

"Totally. Maybe we can actually find a boyfriend that goes to the same school. You know how rare the other half of the species are in our school." They all giggled.

"Omigod! We totally have to get together to decide what to _wear_ tomorrow!" said Ino. "It'll be like the first day of school all over again!"

"Uh...not really..." said Tenten, cocking an eyebrow.

"We can go to my place," offered Sakura, ignoring her friend. "My dad's away on a business trip this week, and mom said she's making lasagna tonight."

"Mmm. Tell her to make a lot, especially if Tenten's gonna stay for dinner," joked Ino.

"Hey!"

"Ahhh! You guys! We have to go now, Shizune's finished and we're gonna be late to class!"

"Again," snickered Sakura.

"Alright!" said Tenten. "Let's go! Oh wait, hey Sakura, did you do the history homework...?"

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**Sorry, that was another really short chapter. But don't worry, they get longer (maybe…) Review pleeeeaaaasssseeee!**


	3. I Do NOT Look Like A Tomato

Chapter 3

**I Do NOT Look Like A Tomato

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The room was noisy, and buzzing with excitement. All the students and teachers from both schools had gathered once again in the Auditorium. The volume was unbelievably high.

"Hey, did you hear? Even the girls have to reschedule their classes! So they'll have coed classes!"

"Sweet! This is gonna be awesome!"

"Yeah man! Bet I can score more numbers than you by the end of the day."

"Oh yeah? You're on!"

"Look at all the hot chicks over there,"

" You know, I'm think I'm gonna to like this place,"

oOo

"Look at that cute guy over there."

"The one with the dog?"

"Yeah! Isn't he _hot_?"

" Eeek! I know! Are we even allowed to have pets at school?"

"Who cares! I call dibs on the one with the spiky black hair."

"Hey! I wanted that one!"

"Too bad! He's _mine." _

"I like the one with the blonde hair."

"Are you kidding me? You mean the one that's being so loud? He looks like a complete idiot!"

"But hey, I mean, he's kinda cute! Gorgeous eyes, too, you can see them from here."

"Omigod! There are so many of them!"

"Yeah, I heard that there's practically twice as many of them as there are us."

"Ha ha, well, plenty to go around, I suppose,"

"Heh. Got that right."

oOo

"Hey, look," said Hinata to her friends over the din. "There's Neji-kun" She pointed to a boy with long black hair, whose back was turned to them.

"Who's that, Hinata?" asked Tenten.

"Isn't he like your god brother or something?" said Sakura.

"No, he's my cousin. But he'll be moving in with us in a couple days." replied Hinata.

"Really? Why?"

"Mm, Neji-kun lives by himself at the moment. But seeing as this school is farther away from his house, father offered to let him stay with us, so it'd be a shorter walk for him."

"Oh,"

"He probably also wanted someone to walk to school with you, especially now that it's co-ed," said Sakura, smirking playfully. Hinata blushed. It wasn't uncommon for maany of the girls to have been sent to the Girls' Academy because of overprotective fathers and other family members.

"Wow, it's so weird to see so many guys here!" exclaimed Tenten. "I bet the sports teams are gonna be a lot more fun,"

"Haha. That's for sure." agreed the pink haired girl, an evil smile slowly spreading across her face.

Tenten looked at her in mock alarm. "Oh my god, Hinata. Someone call the police. An evil demon has taken over Sakura, and is looking ready to wreak havoc. You really shouldn't take advantage of the guys' obliviousness to your demon strength like that, my dear." she said seriously. "Hinata, take note of that."

"Ok. Demon taking over. Wreaking havoc. Got it." said Hinata in her quiet, but teasing voice. She pulled out her cellphone, acting like she was going to make a call. "Should I alert the news reporters too? They might need to know."

"You dorks," Sakura laughed. "So when is this thing going to start?"

"And where's Ino, anyways?" asked Tenten.

"I think she went to the restrooms," answered Hinata.

"Probably making sure her makeup is just perfect," muttered their friend. "You know how she is." Hinata giggled.

"Ex-_cuse_ me Forehead Girl?" said Ino coming from behind them. "I think I missed your little innuendo there. Would you like to explain exactly what you meant by, 'how she is'?"

"Hey Ino, love the skirt. Where'd you get it?" drawled Sakura.

"Thanks. It was on sale at '99 Grace', for like 10 dollars." replied Ino loftily as she plopped down next to them. "As if you weren't right next to me when I bought it. Or telling me that it looked good with the top last night at your house either."

"Of course not." Sakura grinned, remembering.

After several hours of giggling, listening to music, pigging out on Sakura's mother's delicious vegan cooking, and watching _Spirited Away_ for the seven thousandth time (Tenten claimed that she STILL couldn't get over how amazing Haku was, the other girls teased her good naturedly about being in love with an animated character), and enjoying the fact that they had been given a respite from piles of homework they usually received, the four friends had finalized the outfits they were wearing now.

Ino had gone sophisticated-chic (or that's what she _said_, anyway), and was wearing a ruffled black skirt and a purple blouse with a flounced neck and back. Her blonde hair was up in the usual high ponytail, silver bangles around her wrists and ankles. She was wearing a pair of ridiculously small strappy heels showing off her perfectly pedicured toes. Tenten didn't know how she could stand _wearing_ the shoes for more than five minutes, let alone _walk around_ in them the entire day, and not complain of blisters. She didn't see the point either. It wasn't as though it actually _was_ the first day of school. Well, not really, anyways. And they couldn't very well dress up like this everyday. People would see them in normal clothes eventually.

With that thought in mind, Tenten herself was wearing her usual pair of black capris with a pink, mock-Chinese styled tank top, with flower designs printed on it. Her brown hair was in its usual two buns at the top of her head. Compared to Ino's tiny heels, Tenten was wearing a very practical pair of pink and brown skate shoes. Nothing special, just what she normally wore.

(What she didn't notice was the quick side glances she was receiving from some guys anyway, drawn by her tanned, slim, and toned body. Sakura and Hinata, on the other hand _did_ happen to catch an admiring glance tossed in the direction of their friend, and shared a secret smirk).

Hinata had very conservative clothes because of her strict parents, but Ino had coaxed her into wearing a soft (albeit slightly long) white skirt, and a light blue wide neck shirt with words written and pictures faded across it in silver, grays, and blues.

Sakura, too, had taken extra care with her outfit this morning, though wasn't wearing anything as fancy or excessive as Ino-pig. She had a faded pink baby-t that hugged her curves, with a red skirt over a pair of mid-calf leggings. On her feet were red and white polka-dotted keds (that she loved to the ends of the earth) and several bright yellow strings of beads around her neck, matching yellow earrings in her ears. Her bright pink hair was, as usual, smooth and glossy, and hung perfectly over her shoulders. Just to add that extra spark to her appearance, she had lined her eyes with a shocking, lightly shimery pink eyeliner over her usual makeup that morning, making her green eyes pop with a new intensity. (1)

"It's so exciting isn't it, with so many guys around. Three of them just passing by in the halls have already asked if I had a boyfriend." Chattered Ino happily.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "And you said…?"

"I said not yet, but probably pretty soon," said Ino mischievously. Sakura laughed.

"See, this is what I meant when I said, 'you know how Ino is'."

"Shh, you guys," said Hinata, smiling. "Tsunade-sama is here!"

oOo

As Tsunade walked onto the stage, there were a lot of immediate "_shhhhhhh!"s_ going around, and she didn't have to roar "SILENCE!" this time like she did at the boys school. When she got to the microphone, she looked at all of them, then smiled.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I trust you have noticed the many new faces in our school?"

"No shit," muttered Sasuke grumpily, and Naruto elbowed him to be quiet.

"Though it seems to be on rather short notice, we are, nonetheless, very pleased to have all these new students with us from now on. First off, I'd like to make some announcements and review school rules to those of you new to here. You all should've gotten you're schedules now. If not, come down to the office when our assembly is over. Today will be a pretty laid back day, so you can get to know your new classmates, new teachers, and for some of you, the new building. Get to all your classes, and talk to your teachers, and we'll start the real learning tomorrow. Now, I'd like for all of the student council members from KoNAB to please come up…"

oOo

After the assembly, Tenten bid her friends goodbye for now, and made her way down to the office to get her schedule, being the only one of her friends who hadn't received hers yet. As she turned around, not watching where she was going, she collided into someone, stumbled, and slammed into a locker.

"Oww," muttered Tenten, as she rubbed her shoulder. "Sorry. I was spacing out."

"I think I'm getting a sense of déjà vu here." A quiet musical voice announced. "Your hair looks rather familiar. Aren't you that girl from yesterday?"

Tenten looked up into pearly, pupil-less eyes that looked strangely familiar (2). Though he wasn't knocked onto the ground this time, being crashed into by another person had made him drop all his books and binders. The boy with long dark hair, rubbing his chin where her forehead had crashed into, eyeing both their stuff scattered all over the place. He met her gaze for a second, then quickly turned away towards the ground to pick up their scattered belongings. Tenten tilted her head to the side, confused. Wait. Had she met him before?

"_Ahh! Look out!" a voice shrieked behind him. Before Neji could so much as turn around, something smashed into him, and he hit the ground. Hard._

"_Sorry about that! I'm in a hurry!" the voice called, and all Neji saw was a flash of brown hair in two buns, and a pink shirt before the person who knocked him over disappeared, leaving behind a trail of dust._

"Oh!" exclaimed Tenten. "You're that guy who I almost ran over yesterday!" The boy smirked. _Almost?_

"I thought it was you," he remarked, as he handed a stack of papers he knew weren't his. She flushed a little and immediately got on her knees next to him, helping to gather the school supplies rolling around the middle of the hall. When they both straightened, he held out his hand again.

"Neji Hyuga." He said.

"Ohhh, that's right, your Hinata's cousin aren't you?" asked Tenten. He blinked.

"Yes. You know her?"

"Oh yeah, Hinata's one of my best friends," she replied. "Name's Tenten." She said taking his hand. When their hands touched, Tenten felt a tingling shiver like electricity race up her arm. From the way Neji quickly let go of her hand, she guessed he felt it too. _Hmm. Probably just like static electricity or something._ She told herself. To distract herself from thinking too much about how soft and cool Neji's hand felt, she asked,

"So, where ya going?"

"To the office. I still haven't gotten my schedule yet. Could you tell me where it is?"

"Oh, hey, I'm going too. Come on and I'll show you." she said, beckoning to him.

"Thank you," he murmured, as he followed her. Tenten couldn't help but notice how he kept a safe distance from her, so their skin didn't accidentally brush each other anymore.

"So what do you think of the schools just coming together out of nowhere like this?" Asked Tenten, trying to make conversation. Neji frowned slightly.

"I do think that they should have given us a bit more notice before hand," he replied, rolling his eyes a little.

Tenten grinned in reply. "Seriously. I mean, you have to admit, it is a bit strange to all of a sudden have four hundred new students move to a completely different school overnight. I can't believe that they planned all this in such a short time." She shook her head.

"Well, I think that the teachers have probably known for several weeks now, and just didn't bother telling the students. It really caught us off guard. Nobody was expecting the 'big announcement' to be anything like this." He shook his head. Tenten laughed.

"So that's how they told you too, huh?"

"Pardon?"

"We got a big assembly with some "big news" promised to be revealed too," she explained. "We were asked to get there early yesterday. That's why I was in such a hurry," Tenten said with a sheepish expression on her face. Neji looked at her, and a small "Heh," escaped his lips. Tenten caught this, and said in a teasing angry tone,

"Hey! You laughin' at me? You think being in a hurry is any laughing matter? How dare you, so rude! And we've only just met too!"

"Well, not technically," muttered Neji to himself. This was also heard by Tenten. She laughed again.

"Yeah, but only 'cos I was in a hurry, remember?" This drew a crooked smile to Neji's face.

"Yes. Well then in that case, I'm very happy that you were in a hurry and practically ran over me in the middle of the street. At least now I have someone to get directions from." A corner of his mouth twitched up.

Tenten's heart melted at his smile. She mentally slapped herself.

_Jeez. Get yourself together girl! You're not someone like Ino, you shouldn't let yourself get all mushy over a guy! Besides, he's Hinata's _cousin.

_**So?**_

_So what do you mean "so"? and- wait, who are you anyways?_

_**What a dumb question to ask. Aren't you supposed to be smart?**_

_Nobody ever said I was smart._

_**You're good at English. And writing. Hell, you're even pretty good at **_**science.**

_Yeah, but I suck at math. And how would you know all this anyways? I mean, I talk to myself all the time, but this is the first time anyone's ever answered BACK._

_**Err, never mind. The point is, you're falling for Neji, and you know it.**_

_Uhm, hate to burst your bubble, but _no_, actually. I barely even know Neji. I'm not some twit like Ino who falls in and out of "love" at a moment's notice. _

_**Heh. You called Ino a twit. Isn't she supposed to be one of your best friends?**_

_She IS. That doesn't mean she's not a- oh never mind._

_**Whatever. Anyways, even if YOU don't know you like Neji, **_**I**_** do. **_

_You don't know anything. Argh, I can't believe I'm arguing with a voice in my head. Now I'm really going crazy._

_**Too late. You're already there. And I'm not just **_**any**_** voice in your head either. I'm your-**_

_Yea yea, conscience or whatever. I think there was a movie about that. Something to do with like a puppet or something._

_**Pinnochio?**_

_The one with the little singing cricket? Yeah, that's the one. We're almost to the office now. So shut up, and go away. _

…

_Wow, that actually worked?_

_**No. I am simply so appalled that I've likened to a BUG in a CHILDREN'S CARTOON that I seem to have lost my ability of coherent speech.**_

_Whatever. Works for me._

oOo

Meanwhile, Neji was looking at the girl next to him rather oddly, especially after she all of a sudden stopped her laughing and talking, and looked like she was concentrating really hard on something.

_Uhm… ok then…_

_**Sigh. She's so cute when she's trying to think.**_

_I guess…what a weird girl. Wait, who the hell are you?_

_**Oh don't mind me. I'm just some random bum off the streets the author of the story hired to talk to you in your head for her own little crazy amusement. (3)**_

_Pardon?_

_**Oh, such lovely, pretty manners. But never you mind. All the other characters get one too, so don't go thinking that just because you're Hyuga prodigy, means that you're getting special treatment. Actually, while I'd like to carp some more about how spoiled and arrogant and stuck up you are, the author is starting to get pissed at me, so for the purpose of continuing the story, I have to stop now. **_

_What? Ok…I don't get it but… whatever. _

_**So. Moving on. Lot's of hot chicks around now huh?**_

_Not really. To be honest, I really couldn't care less. I don't need useless, noisy giggling girls to distract me in my education._

_**Not even Tenten?**_

_No. She's weird. And she laughs too much._

_**Pshhh, self denial doesn't work on someone livin' in your head dude. Your face looks like a tomato right now You thought she was cute.. ADMIT IT.**_

_What the hell is your problem? Girls are not _cute_. And-and besides, we just met. It would not be proper for a man to…towards a young lady…-I DO NOT LOOK LIKE A TOMATO._

_**Jeez, loosen up a little will ya? Besides, I just felt your heart rate go up….**_**evil grin**

_Well, you see, I-_

_**That's ok, kid. No need to explain to me, I get it. You got the hots for her don't 'cha?**_

_Such crude language. You sound like Naruto or Kiba. _

_**Such refined language. Not working as a defense mechanism, Well?**_

_What? NO. _

_**Aww, how cute. C'mon boy, you're not gonna get anywhere if you even deny it to yourself. **_

_I'd really appreciate it if you'd get out of my head now. _

_**Trust me kid, if I had a choice, I wouldn't have even come in the first place. This place is MESSED. UP.**_

_Then go away._

_**Can't. Violating contracts is bad for the business, you know. **_

_What business?_

_**You're getting off topic. **_

_You're getting out of my head._

_**Make me. **_

…

_**Oho, going on the silent treatment eh?**_

…

_**You know you like her. Just look at her. You've known her name for 5 minutes, and already you want to know everything about her. You want to know what she likes, what she dislikes, why she always laughs, her favorite color, her favorite sports, her hobbies, her family. You want to know why she's friends with Hinata, what kind of relationship she has with her, what kind of relationship she wants with you... You want to know every inch of her, mentally, emotionally, physically-**_

_Ok, STOP right there. You were totally making the last part up. _

_**Oh, so the first parts were true?**_

_No. _

_**You want to know what that tasty little body would look like without her-**_

_OK FINE! IT WAS! God, stop sounding like such a perverted, pedophile. _

_**Aww, you're blushing. Grow up. You're almost 17 and you've never even seen-**_

_I DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY! So STOP. Jesus, how old are you anyways?_

_**Sorry, classified information. Why?**_

_You act like Jiraya._

_**Ero-sennin?**_

_Yeah._

_**No I don't. I have waay more... class. Style. **_

_ohhh, noo. touché. _

_**Exactly.**_

_I was being sarcastic. You're exactly like him._

_**Am not.**_

_Are too._

_**Am not.**_

_You're stupid._

_**Oh, so we've resorted to the insult vocabulary of a two year old now, have we?**_

_Why you-_

"Neji?" asked Tenten, waving her hands in his face. He blinked, surprised.

_We'll finish this later. _

_**Looking forward to it.**_

"Sorry," he said. She gave a bright smile.

"Ah, S'ok. Anyways, it's here." They both walked into the office, where a woman with short dark hair was sitting.

"Hey Shizune-san," called Tenten. "We're here for our schedules." Shizune smiled, and looked through a pile of papers on her desk.

"Ok! Let's see, Tenten, Tenten… ah! Here you are!" She took out a sheet of paper, and handed it to the girl, then turned to Neji.

"Hyuga," he answered before prompted. She looked through the pile again.

"Neji?"

"Yes,"

"Alright, here you go," she said smiling. "Have a nice day you two!" They both thanked her, and left the office.

"So what do you have first period?" asked Tenten.

"Hn," Neji looked down at his paper, memorizing it and held it low enough for her to see over his arm.

_1A English with Kakashi,_

_1B Physics I_

_2A World Languages_

_2B PE with Gai-sensei_

_Lunch 1_

_3A Calculus BC_

_3B European History_

_4A Study Hall/Homeroom_

_4B Home EC_

_5A Biology II_

_5B Calculus BC_

_6A Art _

_6B Famous Literature with Jiraya_

He made a face at the last one, having experience with Jiraya and what he considered, "literature". (4)

"What about you?" He asked, curious in spite of himself as he turned his pale gaze to her. Tenten looked over at his schedule, then at her own again.

"I think we actually have mostly the same schedule, just with a few different classes," she replied. "Let's see, I have, uh, English, Earth science, Spanish, then PE, Lunch 1, Algebra… Euro, Homeroom, Home Ec, Bio, Financial Literacy, Art, then Famous Lit," read Tenten, her voice trailing up slightly in confusion at that last class. Neji peered over her shoulder to look at her schedule. Algebra I. He looked at her with an amused expression on his face. She stared back, and turned slightly pink. Neji shook his head with a sigh of exasperation.

"Shut up," laughed Tenten before he could say anything. "Math isn't my strong suit."

"Wow," chuckled Neji. "You're in advanced English, Biology, Spanish IV, and yet for math, you're still in…" Tenten socked him playfully.

"Well not everyone can be good at _everything _like Mr. Genius over here." she joked. "I mean, they have to have people fill up the stoopid classes too ya know." She looked over to find Neji still smirking at her.

"You're not that stupid."

"Yeah, wait 'til you get to know me better."

"Valid point. But until then-" He was interrupted by a group of girls prancing by, throwing him flirtatious looks, and giggling a lot louder than necessary.

"Heey," said one of them, batting her eyelashes furiously, so that it looked like she had something in her eye she was trying to get out. Her friends all tittered loudly, and daintily wiggled their fingers as they passed by. "See you around,"

Neji refused to so much as throw them a glance.

Once they're high-pitched giggles disappeared and the halls were once again silent, Tenten busted into laughter.

"Oh...my god," she gasped, trying to control her breath. "Did you _see_ them? '_heeeey'" _she stopped her rolling laughter long enough to do an imitation of the girl, blinking as fast as she could. "'Bye bye, Neji-_kuun_'" She burst into another peel of hysterics.

"I'm glad _somebody's _amused." he said dryly. Looking up to see his barely suppressed expression of disgust only made her cackle harder.

"See? Compared to _them_, you're obviously the very epitome of genius." Neji muttered. The girl next to him grinned cheekily.

"Has anyone ever told you that you laugh too much?" he asked reprochfully.

"Heh heh. Probably," She replied with an innocent shrug. "But then again, all my friends are like that. Is that a bad thing? Happy! Now c'mon! We gotta get to ALL our classes for today, what time is it anyway? Oh shit! Neji hurry up! English, English…" she sang slightly off key, snips of her laughter echoing through the halls. Neji watched her in confused amusement as she continued, "I'll show you I'm not such a complete dunce after all!" She skipped off, motioning him to follow her.

As she went, she thought she heard Neji quietly mutter to himself,

"I do NOT look like a tomato,"

* * *

**(1) Lol, really sorry about that whole long winded paragraph guys. I just have a slight obsession with what my characters…er…kishimoto's characters are wearing in my little AU haha**

**(2)They look familiar because they're just like Hinata's, but Tenten isn't exactly the brightest, most observant of the bunch, haha**

**(3) Its true XD**

**(4) ok, so I totally just made the last class up. sorry, I just couldn't resist

* * *

**

**Eh… that chapter was a little….idk. Sorry if I overdid Tenten's hyperness a little too much. Tell me what you think. PLEASE! I need to know if it sucks crap, or if its ok…bc seeing as I'm the one who wrote it, I totally can't tell. So…opinions and feedback please! :D**

**THANKS FOR READING  
**


	4. Denial is so unattractive, Sukeychan

Chapter 4

**Denial is so unattractive, Sukey-chan

* * *

**

"Hey guys! Don't you think it's great that we have class together?" cried Naruto to his friends as they tried to find their way through the buildings.

"We dunno about Lee yet," said Kiba. "Or Neji, come to think of it. Where'd he go anyway?"

"Office," replied Shikamaru, smothering a yawn, ambling along with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "C'mon guys, I think it's this way."

"No it's not dumbass, it's that way,"

"Didn't that giggling twit we asked back there say to keep going until we pass three rooms?"

"We did, genius, look behind us,"

"So where the hell is it? God, why aren't these rooms numbered _normally_? We just passed room 205, and the one before that was 459. What is _wrong_ with this school?"

"Our building was just as confusing, it's probably just because it's our first time _in_ the damn building," grumbled Sasuke. "But they could at least give us a map, or something."

"Well _somebody's_ in a great mood."

"Either way, we're completely lost," commented Chouji through a mouthful of chips.

Sasuke paused, and looked at him. "Are you ever _not_ eating something?" he asked.

"Of course, a guy's gotta sleep sometime you know." muttered Shikamaru.

"Yes, it's true, but I don't think it's possible for anyone to sleep half as much as you do," came Shino's quiet voice from the back of their group. Kiba laughed loudly in agreement.

"Hey! You!" shouted Naruto, waving at a girl walking by.

"'Hey you'? For most circumstances offered in social situations, that's really considered quite rude, you know." The blonde girl said, turning around with a smirk. Her turquoise eyes blinked and the flirtatious expression dropped from her face when she saw Shikamaru.

"Oh, hey Shikamaru! You're here too Chouji?" she asked facing the boy still munching on his bag of potato chips.

"That's right, I'd forgotten you went to this school," replied Shikamaru. "Oi. How troublesome." She rolled her eyes. How many times she had heard _that_ before.

"Who's that?" asked Kiba, his face popping up from Shikamaru's shoulder. Naruto's head popped up from behind the other.

"Ino Yamanaka," she replied. "I've known Lazy Ass over there and Chouji since we were kids. Our parents are real close." Then she looked at Naruto.

"May I help you?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Then her eyes traced through the rest of their group. "You're lost, right?" she said with another little smirk.

"What's it to you?" asked Kiba, bristling at her smug expression.

"My oh my, you're going to be _awfully _late to class, and on the very first day too, tsk." she teased, shaking her head from side to side with mock sympathy. Shikamaru sighed.

"Cut it out, Ino. You know where the English class room is?"

"That way." She pointed behind them. "126. You passed it already." Sasuke groaned, and smacked his hand against his forehead.

_Hmm._ Thought Ino. _He's hot. Wonder what type of girls he likes…_

_**But let's keep our options open for a little while.**_

_Good idea. All of them are pretty good looking. Heh, heh._

Shikamaru sighed again, and muttered "Troublesome," to himself again.

"I'm on my way there myself," She told them. "C'mon, follow me," and strode confidently down the hall. She smiled to herself as she noticed the boy with the unruly brown hair eye her as she walked by.

_Damn, that girls gotta pair of legs on her_, thought Kiba. He looked up to see Ino's smirking face as she sauntered by, and glared back. _Too bad she's so friggin' annoying. _

The classroom was loud and chaotic, seeing as the teacher hadn't shown up yet. They was flirting, chatting, gossiping about the new students, sleeping, and much ogling at people of opposite gender. Sakura and Hinata sat somewhere on the edge of the third row, and Sakura looked like she was about to kill someone.

"Erg, damnit, these boys are really starting to piss me off," she growled, after turning down the sixth boy who had asked her out. And that was just in the classroom. Walking through the halls to class had been a nightmare. "They don't even know my name, much less who I am. All they see is a pretty face. And_ noo_, their not very picky either!" After all, practically all of the guys who had asked either of them if they had a boyfriend, or if they wanted to go out, after having been turned down, had just turned right on the next girl, and asked the same question. Hinata, (who, although she hadn't been harassed by as many boys as Sakura had, still got a fair share of it,) sat next to her, listening patiently. She knew Sakura well enough that she thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea to interrupt her ranting just now.

"God, it's like they don't care who it is, as long as they can have a girl hanging off and drooling all over their arm. They're so desperate, it's PATHETIC!" She slammed her fist down on the table, making the floor shake. Not that anyone really noticed over the din. "I KNEW I shouldn't have bothered getting all dressed up for this! _Stupid_ Ino-Pig! Tenten was right!"

"I know." grinned Tenten as she popped out of nowhere, her elbows suddenly propped up on the desk Sakura was sitting at. "But what was I right about this time?"

"Dress code." Said Sakura darkly.

"…You okay girl?"

"What do you think?" she grimaced.

"I _think_ that you're a little…distressed about something…" her light joking was rewarded with a glare, making Tenten laugh.

"Oh, yeah, Hinata, I met Neji on the way to the office," said Tenten, turning around. "He's…huh?" she turned around again.

"Where'd he go? Neji?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, there you are. I was wondering where you went. Where did you go anyways?"

"I was over there putting my stuff down." He looked over to her friends. "Hinata." He said, nodding once, as way of greeting.

"Neji," replied Hinata. "Oh, and this is Sakura, by the way." She introduced, gesturing towards the pink haired girl next to her. She saw him raise an eyebrow at the unusual color.

"It's natural," said Sakura curtly, before he could open his mouth.

Neji shrugged. "I wasn't about to say anything." Sakura glared at him.

Tenten laughed, slung an arm over the girl's shoulders. "Don't worry Neji; she's not usually this cranky. I think in this case, it's safe to say that the lovely beauty that graces our fair, bubble gum -haired friend here's face has attracted one too many admirers." This made the corners of Sakura's mouth tug upwards.

"Yea, one. Or twelve," she retorted wryly. But her bad mood was broken, and she calmed down a little.

"Hey, there's Ino," pointed Hinata, and the two other girls turned to look. Sure enough, there she was, waltzing in through the door, a gaggle of six or so boys coming in behind her. The three of them exchanged weary glances.

_Ohhh boy,_ they all thought. Ino bounced over to them.

"Hey guys! Wow, this is great, we all have first period together don't we?

"Yo! Neji!" she was interrupted, as the boy with spiky brown hair, followed by the rest of their group came over. Ino glared at him.

"Could you be any louder?" she asked sarcastically.

He threw a glare of his own over his shoulder at her. "If I'm too loud for you, then I suggest you move."

"We were here first!"

"So stop complaining!"

"What are you talking about? Your obnoxious voice is giving me a headache!"

"Oh, so now _you're_ calling _me_ obnoxious?"

"What was that supposed to mean?"

"I should've known the blonde couldn't figure it out!"

At this, the three other girls winced. "Ooh, he's got it coming now," muttered Tenten. The four of them (including Neji,) watched the bickering grow bigger, and bigger, and turn into practically a shouting match (not that many other people in the room paid any attention. You couldn't really tell the difference because it was so loud anyways), with almost identical incredulous expressions.

"What's got her so tied up in a knot?" muttered Tenten to Neji. "She's usually not this…easily provoked. What's with that guy?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Neji murmured back. "Kiba's usually such a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. I mean, he can yell pretty loud, but usually fights with him blow over in about a minute. I've never seen him worked in such a temper either."

"They've been like this the whole way here," murmured a boy with pale skin, and shadowy hair in a jacket with a huge collar and dark glasses. He turned to Tenten. "Shino Aburame," he introduced himself.

"Tenten," she replied, smiling.

"Speaking of which," Sakura joined in. "Why exactly were you together the whole way here? Sakura, by the way," she added by way of introduction.

"Oh brother, their still at it?" groaned Chouji, coming over with the rests of their friends. "Go stop them Shikamaru."

"Why me?" he grumbled back. "So troublesome. Just let them fight it out."

"Hey, there's a great strategy. Nothing less from the genius." said Sasuke sarcastically.

At the sound of his voice, Sakura glanced over at the young Uchiha, and froze. Naruto chose that time to come bounding over, seeing Sakura.

"Hello!" he said cheerily. "You're Sakura right? My name's Naruto. You're really pretty. Hey, wanna go out?" Sakura's blank stare darkened suddenly, and the next thing anyone knew, Naruto had flown over to the opposite corner of the room with a huge welt across his face. Hinata gave a small gasp.

"Impressive." said Tenten casually, while Hinata hurriedly ran over to help Naruto, and the boys stood there gaping at the huge crack in the wall where Naruto had hit it. "Although, Sakura sweets, I know this is a touchy subject with you, especially today, but seeing as we're in school and all, don't you think you should have held back a little more? I mean, Tsunade-sama will probably make you pay to repair the wall, and aren't you still broke from having to pay for those lockers you smashed last month? Not to mention all those desks and chairs…"

"Shut up," muttered Sakura. "I was distracted, he caught me off guard." Her mind flickered over to the dark haired boy currently moving into the desk a few rows over. It couldn't be…no. No, he can't be the same person…right? Wouldn't he have said something? Then again, maybe he didn't remember her. She did look different…Her mind snapped back to the present. "I tried holding back at the last second, but I guess…" her voice trailed off."You ok?" she called to Naruto. He was rubbing his head, but when he heard Sakura's voice, he almost instantly perked up, and bounded over.

"Wow! That was so cool! You completely sent me flying! You're really strong for a girl, aren't you?" he said, not bothered at all by the fact that there was a huge bump on his head, and a rather large red mark on his face. The boys were all still staring. Even Ino and Kiba had quieted down enough to look at the slender pink-hair girl with a new respect. Ino was laughing.

"Sakura! Now you'll have to pay for repairs again! Good god girl, anger management!" she joked.

"Is this really something to be laughing about?" Neji asked Tenten incredulously. "Aren't you bothered at all by the fact that she just punched a guy, and sent him flying into a wall?"

"Oh, don't be such an uptight, Neji-kun," she answered, reaching over to pat his cheek.

"This obviously just proves how often this kind of thing happens, and how normal it's become," noted Sasuke. Sakura grinned wolfishly, silently relieved that he didn't seem to be showing any recognition. Then a slightly devious idea came into her head.

"Wanna arm wrestle?" she asked slyly.

"Sakura!" laughed Tenten. "We've discussed this yesterday already. It's not nice to take advantage of the guys when they haven't known you for long!"

"Arm wrestle with a girl? No thanks," smirked Sasuke. Sakura frowned.

"You just know you're gonna lose don't you? Don't worry, I won't go hard on you," she taunted.

"Oh, don't mind Sasuke, Sakura-chan. Sasuke's pride is too big, and he doesn't want to tarnish it by losing to a girl," added Naruto. At that, Sasuke slammed himself into a chair, and put his elbow on the table with his arm up.

"Just don't come crying if you get hurt," he said, throwing in a glare at Naruto. Sakura smiled angelically.

"I could say the same to you," she replied, sitting in the chair opposite him. Everyone crowded in for a better look.

"Ready, set, go!" announced Naruto. Nothing appeared to have happened. Their locked hands didn't move an inch. Sakura scowled.

"Are you mocking me?" she growled. "Here I was, being nice, letting you get a head start, and you barely even try!"

"Fine. Then I won't hold back." His hand slowly forced Sakura's down.

"Ha! You call this not holding back? You got nothing on me," she answered, as her hand rose, their arms locking once again straight in the center, neither one giving an inch.

"You're stronger than you look, I'll give you that much," grunted Sasuke after about three minutes of neither side moving, except for an occasional tremble.

"You too," grimaced Sakura. "My arm is getting sore, let's end this soon, please," Sasuke looked up at her in disbelief, and saw her emerald eyes sparkling playfully, and something inside him froze. Sakura took the chance, and slammed his hand into the table, creating several hairline cracks in the desk. She looked up at him in surprise.

"I didn't quite mean so literally, but…" then she smiled. "Hehe, that was fun. We should do that again sometime."

"Yea. And I won't let you win next time either," he muttered, mentally beating himself for hesitating like that. _What's wrong with you? I've never lost an arm wrestling match before. Stupid girl. _

_**Hee-hee! Sasuke-chan is falling for a girl! **_

_What the hell. Who are you? What are you doing in my head? And why do you have such an annoying high pitched voice?_

_**Oh, you mean author-sama didn't warn you about me?**_

_Author? No…_

_**Hmm. Well, everyone gets one… at least, **_**almost**_** everyone gets one, and Sasuke-chan is soooo lucky, because Sasuke-chan gets ME!**_

_Who the hell are you? And don't call me Sasuke-chan._

_**Well, I is ME! And don't be such a spoilsport Sasuke-chan, we need to get on with the story.**_

_QUIT CALLING ME THAT! Argh! Great, first I lose to a _girl _at arm wrestling, and now I'm hearing an annoying little voice in my head. You know, it's because of people like you that I decided to go to an ALL GUYS school. _

_**ME isn't just any little voice, Sukey-chan. ME is very special. ME is getting big bucks to do this, so Sukey-chan better cooperate with ME.**_

…

_**Sukey-chan? **_

_..._

_**Sukey-chan?**_

_I refuse to respond to "Sukey-chan"._

_**Fine, fine, Sukey-chan doesn't need to respond if Sukey-chan doesn't want to. But Sukey-chan, ME is here for a reason you know. After all, Author-sama is paying ME to be here. ME is here to remind Sukey-chan to realize how pretty you think Sakura is. Sigh, ME is jealous.**_

_What?_

_**I said, ME is jea-**_

_Yea, I heard that. But what was that about Sakura? She's not pretty. Is she even a girl? God, what brute strength she has._

_**Oh come on, Sukey-chan. First you complain about girls being too girly, now you think she's not girly enough? Make up your mind sweetie.**_

_That's because ALL girls are annoying. and she's the worst out of all of them-_

_**Denial is so overrated Sukey-chan. Admitting it to yourself is the first step you know. **_

_There's nothing to admit. I'm painfully honest with myself._

_**ME doesn't think so, Sukey-chan.**_

_STOP CALLING ME THAT! _

_(A/N:: Ok, anyways, MOVING ON.)_

Meanwhile…

"Ok class, settle down, settle down," called out a man with silver hair wearing a mask that covered half of his face. "You've already made us late enough as it is,"

"Who made _who _late?" shouted out several of the boys.

"Yes, yes, I'm very sorry about that. You see, there was a pregnant woman who needed help to get to hospital, so…" the boys sighed, obviously very used the excuses, while the girls watched apprehensively.

"Well, anyways, take your seats; we only have about ten minutes left. Now, I understand that today, we're to get used to our classes and new classmates, yes? So why don't we start with some introductions. Tell us your name and a little something about yourself. How about…your favorite color? Sure, we'll go with that. I'll start. My name is Kakashi, and I like…well, I don't really want to tell you. Now you, young lady, why don't you start."

"I'm Sakura, and my favorite color's red?" she answered, looking a little baffled.

"I'm Ino, I like purple."

"u-um, my name is H-Hinata, and well, my f-favorite color is, um, maybe blue?"

"My name is Tenten, and my favorite color either blue or green!" she said cheerily.

"Neji, I don't really have a favorite color, but probably green."

"Shino. Black."

"I'm Kiba, favorite color's red."

"Shikamaru. Why do you want us to say our favorite colors anyway, _sensei_?" asked Shikamaru, putting emphasis on the "sensei", with a raised eyebrow at Kakashi.

"Just do it Mr. Nara."

"Fine, fine. This is such a drag. I dunno, maybe the color of the sky?"

"My name's Chouji, I like orange or green. Not together though." said Chouji, munching through a second bag of chips.

"Oh, yes, and Chouji? Could you put the snacks away during class? You'll get crumbs all over the floor." Chouji hid his bag of chips under the table.

"Anyways, lets continue." Kakashi nodded at Naruto.

"My name is Naruto, and my favorite color is anything bright! Like orange!" he proclaimed. Hinata's face turned slightly pink, and she got a mushy expression on her face. Ino nudged Sakura, and they smiled at how sweet she looked, while trading meaningful glances towards Naruto's direction, and chuckling under their breaths.

"Sasuke?" probed Kakashi. Sasuke had been sitting in the corner wearing a huge navy blue t-shirt, and khaki shorts, and a rather pained expression on his face.

"Oh, name's Sasuke, I prefer blue." Came the short reply. Sakura watched curiously as he winced, as if someone was talking to him in his head or something. _Nah, Sasuke's always been too cool to have a voice in his head. _She thought. Then they made eye contact. Sasuke quickly looked away, and then grimaced again.

And so the rest of the class went, and before they knew it, the bell rang, signaling their next class.

"Ha, he didn't even notice the hole in the wall!" crowed Sakura, as she, Tenten, and Hinata were showing Neji, Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, and a few others towards the Science Hall.

"Guess that means you're off the hook for now, right?" chuckled Tenten. Sakura grinned, and kept walking.

"So does Kakashi-sensei always show up that late?" asked Tenten.

"Not _always_. Sometimes he gets here only 40 minutes after he's supposed to." replied Neji.

"Just our luck we have him first period, huh?"

"No, it's like that for basically all of his classes. He disappears during the breaks between classes, and doesn't show up until an hour later."

"Then why's he still a teacher? Why isn't' he like, fired or something?"

"Thing is, he gives so much homework which he grades so harshly, his students end up getting the highest test scores in the Village." Shikamaru explained with a shrug.

Tenten gave him a blank look. "That doesn't make sense," Neji smiled.

"You'll see. You better be prepared for an avalanche of homework tomorrow though." Tenten said something, and he chuckled again. Hinata walked near the back of the group watching, a little confused at how... _nice_ Neji was being. This was rather a rare occurrence, especially with people he didn't know very well. Her thoughts were interrupted when Naruto sidled up to her.

"Hey," he said, grinning widely. "You're Hinata, right?" Hinata promptly turned pink.

"Y-yes," she stammered.

"Well, I forgot to thank you for helping me when Sakura-chan slammed me into the wall," he continued. "So, thanks!" He tilted his head, and stared at her face, which was now and even deeper shade of red.

"Hmm? Hinata? You look kinda hot. Do you have a fever or something?" he leaned his face closer to hers without realizing it, which, of course, didn't help matters at all, and put one hand on her forehead and the other on his own. She fainted. Tenten ran over, and caught her just in time.

"Yeesh, Naruto, what did you do to her?" asked Tenten, fanning Hinata with her notebook. Neji glared at him.

"I didn't do anything! I was just thanking her for helping me, and then she turned red and fainted!" defended Naruto. "Jeez, what a weird girl." He shrugged, and walked off.

"HOLD IT!" called Sakura, and she grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket. "Don't think you're going anywhere until you go get Shizune-san and have her look at Hinata. Take a little responsibility, will ya?" she scolded at him.

"Nah, wait, I think she's waking up," called Tenten.

Hinata's eyes slowly cracked open. _Huh? What happened? _She thought blearily. She opened her eyes, to see Naruto's bright blue ones staring back. She let out a small gasp, turned pink, and froze. Tenten felt her go stiff in her arms, and looked to see Naruto's face inches from Hinata's. Then she realized the problem. She drew back and arm, and shoved Naruto's forehead away, sending him staggering into Sasuke.

"Hey! Watch it!" said Sasuke, as he stumbled backwards to avoid having Naruto knock him over.

"What was that for?" shouted Naruto.

"Give her some space will ya? You're probably the main problem, as to why she fainted!"

"What did I do-" He was clonked on the head again, by Sakura this time.

"You are so clueless." she said, rolling her eyes. "Hinata dear, can you stand up? We gotta get to class, and we're crowding the hallways." Hinata got up unsteadily. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"Glad you're alright Hinata. Jeez, you're so weird, whatd'you faint like that for?"

"Oh, be nice Naruto," said Sakura, shoving him gently. Well, gently for her anyways, which wasn't gently enough, apparently. Naruto lurched forward, tripped over Sasuke's foot, and landed, face first, on Hinata's chest. She screamed. Before Naruto could do anything, he was smacked on the head, _again. _Harder than before. It was Neji this time. He glared down at Naruto, his face dark.

"What do you think you're doing to my cousin?" he growled, with a menacing look.

The warning bell rang, and Tenten sighed. _Oh brother. Now we really are going to be late.

* * *

_

**haha! the startings of Naru/Hina. review please! reviews make me happy! Even if its just to tell me that its kinda boring. Sorry. u.u**

**Review~!  
**


	5. Girls Can Kick Ass Too, You Know

Chapter 5

**Girls Can Kick Ass Too, You Know  


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**

The next period went by quickly. The teacher, Yamato, seemed sane enough, (unlike a _certain_ English teacher…) and told them what they were going to study and what to expect in his class. Then they went their separate ways for third period, Neji (finding them after a rather frightening session with Ibiki-sensei, the physics teacher, down the hall), Hinata, and Shikamaru went off to World Languages, Sakura, Sasuke, and a guy named Sai were going to French just down the hall, while Tenten acted as a tour guide, and showed Naruto, Chouji, Shino, and Kiba (as soon as he caught up to them, coming from Life systems from next door), and a hyper guy in a strange, green jumpsuit with a bowl cut and huge eyebrows, whom Naruto called "Bushy-brow", to the Spanish room.

Which, of course, just happened to be on the other side of the campus,so they had to cross through several buildings, and the courtyard outside.

"Oh! The scenery outside is so beautiful! So wonderful, especially with all the youthful young faces everywhere!" proclaimed Lee, as they were walking outside. "Coming to a new school is SO refreshing! AH, I can feel the power of youth burning inside!"

Tenten watched with a confused smile, watching Lee going off into his own world, rambling about things no one really understood. All his other friends just ignored him, well used to this by now.

"Wow! This place really is a lot nicer than our building!" exclaimed Naruto, looking around as they walked.

"No kidding," added Kiba. "Our courtyard wasn't nearly as nice,"

"Well with a bunch of hyper boys around, what would you expect?" joked Tenten good naturedly, as she watched them running around, being noisy. She didn't really mind them goofing off. Had it been Sakura, they'd all have huge bumps on their heads, and most likely be walking single file to the classroom. Tenten giggled at the thought.

"Well, you have to know our school _was_ built about fifty years before this school," said Shino in his quiet, precise voice, falling in step besides Tenten.

"Really?" asked Tenten amazed. "Wow. That's pretty cool."

"Yes, they're planning to do some reconstruction there. Turn it into a business building or something like that. That's why we're all here, instead of there. "

"Hmm," Tenten looked over at the boy next to her, with the hood of his gigantic jacket over his head, and big, baggy pants, as well as a black turtle-neck that covered up his entire neck, with his chin just barely showing. Dark glasses made it impossible to see his eyes, and with his hands stuffed in pockets, there was a grand total of about two inches of Shino's skin was even showing at all.

"Don't you ever get hot wearing all that?" she inquired curiously.

"No." came the short reply.

"Do you always wear that much?"

"What do you mean, 'that much'?"

Tenten blinked. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Oi! Tenten! Which way do we go now?" called Kiba's loud voice from ahead.

"Oh! Turn that way!" shouted back Tenten, jogging to catch up with them, completely forgetting about whatever else she was about to ask Shino. _Hmm. What a spaz._

_**She'd be good for Neji**__._

_Yeah. They seemed to be getting along pretty well. I've never seen Neji be so open with someone he didn't know before. _

_**This should be interesting. **_

_Want to bet on how long it'll take them to get together?_

_**Psh. Neji probably won't get it. And he's the kind of person who won't act out of selfishness if he thinks she doesn't want him.**_

_20 bucks?_

_**You're on. **_(1)

oOo

Ino sat down and sighed. Class was going to start soon, and the seats were almost all filled. Well, there were two on either side of her where no one was sitting. They were probably intimidated by the striking blonde (not that she wasn't used to it by now. Ino could be pretty intimidating), and besides, she hardly knew anyone in this class. Well, actually, she knew the names of practically everyone so far, including the boys. She had a gift for things like that. She'd shown a few of them to the classroom, and gave several others directions to various classrooms, and remembered the names they'd told her. Ino gave another inner sigh. Sure, there were a few hot guys in here, yet none of them had shown any promise, any flair, any… style. To bad Sakura had French and Hinata took world languages. She didn't know about Tenten, she forgot to ask about her schedule in first period.

Just as she thought that, Tenten strolled in through the door. Ino perked up. Her day became just that much brighter.

"Tenten!" called Ino, waving at an empty seat next to her. Tenten bounded over grinning, and sat down. That's when Ino saw who came in behind her friend. Her day became just that much darker.

First came in two rather hyper looking guys, one in a bright green jumpsuit, the other wearing a bright orange jacket. Ino didn't recognize the guy with the black bowl cut, but she thought his name was like Lee, or Len, or something like that. She knew Naruto from first period. They went to the fourth row, and sat next to each other, chattering on about something, with bursts of "YOUTH!" and "BELIEVE IT!" every now and then. Then Shino came in, and promptly headed towards the very back row, where there was one seat in the corner. Had the clothing he was wearing been tighter, he might have looked like a ninja, with all his body covered except for part of his face. The thought might have made Ino smile, if not for the sight of who came in behind him. She glared at him, and Tenten, who was watching curiously, could practically imagine her growling, with raised hackles. Kiba, in turn, as he caught sight of her, immediately scanned the room for any other, _any_ other seat besides the one next to the "blonde-haired bitch" as he'd come to think of her. Not that Kiba had anything against dogs. In fact, he really quite liked them a lot (including the female ones), and was extremely disappointed that Akamaru had been sent home by an irate Tsunade that morning after the assembly.

But honestly, that was the first thing to come to mind, and it just sort of stuck.

Anyways, upon seeing none, Kiba stalked over stiffly, and went up to the guy sitting one seat over from Ino.

"Move," he growled, giving a death stare at the cowering boy who didn't know what the hell had possessed the normally cheerful, loud but friendly Kiba into the frightening creature shooting icicles at the hot girl two seats over. But before he could gather all his stuff together and scramble out of the seat, a teacher came in, and asked Kiba politely to sit down. With no choice, Kiba threw himself into the chair, scooting his chair to sit as far away from Ino as possible, and just not looking in her direction at all. Ino did the same.

_Wonder what got her so worked up._ Thought Tenten mentally, completely not getting what Kiba had done exactly for Ino to loathe him so much (although, frankly, really quite a bit amused at the two's antics).

Through the entire class, everyone in the room seemed to be covered with an ominous vibes, the tension between the two students unwaveringly facing opposite directions and determinedly pretending the other was not there, was thick enough that a chainsaw wouldn't have gone through it. The teacher seemed amazingly unaffected by it, and continued lecturing on the next few weeks of the class, and how tomorrow they'd be getting a quick little quiz to see how much each student knew about the language, and so on. When the bell finally rang, Kiba and Ino were the first ones to their feet. Almost completely in sync, they strode towards the door, but because they'd both tried going through it at the same time, neither of them could get out. They stepped back, glared at each other, and tried going forward again. Same results.

"Asshole," "Bitch,"

Again, almost simultaneously. Tenten had to muffle a giggle.

"Would either of you like to stop glaring at each other and continue this later, and move out of the way, so the rest of us can get through?" came an annoyed voice that belonged to Shino. With one last glare, Kiba walked quickly out of the room. Ino bristled, but then she felt a hand nudge her shoulder.

"So sorry for his behavior," commented Shino. "He's not usually like that. I don't know what it could've been that got him into such a bad mood but…" he shrugged. Ino sighed heavily.

"You don't need to apologize for him. Asshole," she muttered darkly, throwing a scowl in the direction of the door. Shino shrugged again, and quietly disappeared through the door.

"Whoah, Ino, what's gotten you so tied up in a knot?" asked Tenten, coming up behind her. Ino took a deep breath to calm herself, and paused.

"I dunno. It's just whenever I look at that jerk, I just get so…" Her face scrunched up.

"Hmm. Hey, listen, what class do you have next Ino? I have PE,"

"Ugh, I have _math_," replied Ino in disgust. "I liked our old schedule better."

"Which lunch do you have?"

"1st, I think. Same as Hinata and Sakura."

"Yay, me too! We'll talk in the cafeteria, ok? The gym's on the other side of campus, so-" They were interrupted by the warning bell. "Shit," muttered Tenten. "See you at lunch, ok?" and with that, she raced off, stumbling a little when she turned around so fast. Ino shook her head at how spazzy Tenten was acting lately. Must be that time of year. But then she sighed again, walking towards Pre-Calc, resisting the urge at laughing at herself. She'd sighed so many times in the last hour. If she didn't watch herself, she might turn into some whiny-ass like Shikamaru. Always complaining, always sleeping. Always late…crap. Speaking of which… groaning, she quickened her pace towards the next classroom.

oOo

"OK! Students! I am your brilliant new teacher, Maito Gai-sensei! In this wonderful, refreshing class, we shall be taking full advantage of our youthfulness for maximum results! First, we shall start off with a hundred laps around the gym, then proceed with 500 pushups, then 700 sit ups, and 590 crunches, and then we'll take a little break by running another 40 laps, and then…"

"He can't be serious," Tenten groaned to Sakura, who was sitting next to her. "He's even worse than Anko-sensei."

"Well, he is, but he and Lee are the only ones who actually keep up with it. The rest of us usually just warm up and play basketball or something." Neji, who was behind her, told them.

Meanwhile, many of the girls were observing with raised eyebrows and other skeptical looks at Lee, who was listening very attentively, and looked basically like a miniature version of Gai, right down to the strange green outfit, haircut, and eyebrows. When Gai sensei finally finished his little welcome speech and giving them the options of working out with him, or splitting up into groups to play basketball ("Are you psychic, or is this just what he usually have you do?" murmured Sakura. "Routine." replied Neji.), with many a "YOUTH!" and other variations, he and Lee took off to run laps, leaving behind a figurative cloud of dust and a very awkward silence.

"Um…ok then…" started one girl with professional and expensive looking hair, makeup and nails. "So, we gonna playing basketball now? Ugh. Eww."

"I don't see why he's even teaching PE when he doesn't really "teach" us anything." muttered Shikamaru, walking over to drag out a bin full of jerseys and sports equipment. "What a drag."

"So, who're the captains?" asked Naruto cheerily.

"The usual." Replied another guy.

"Okay then." Said a boy, standing up and stretching his arms. "Neji. Get over here."

"Hey, you guys got him last time!" called someone, while the girls were just sitting there blankly.

"Uh, what about us?" interrupted Sakura impatiently.

"What about you? You girls can watch, or play on that half of the court."

"Why can't we play full court?"

"Because the guys are on this side!" the boy replied irritably.

"Why are the girls also in this class anyways? Shouldn't we have different classes?" someone asked.

"Why?" Tenten wanted to know, tilting her head to the side. "Isn't the whole point of combining to have co-ed classes?" Neji looked at her. _Um, no, actually. But I don't think that's what she wants to hear right now. _

"What do you mean, 'why'? It's obvious isn't it?" A boy with gray camouflage pants and messy, spiky black hair said incredulously.

Tenten blinked. "No…"

"Girls are weaker and not as fast as us," the guy replied tactlessly. Tenten and Sakura both narrowed their eyes.

"Girls are just naturally born weaker. That doesn't mean they're weak for the rest of they're lives." One of the boys said fairly.

"No need to sugar coat it Akito, Zaku's right. We all know its true," called out another boy, and a bunch of them laughed. Neji noticed that Sasuke and all the other guys who were in English that morning didn't join in.

"That's so ridiculous!" exclaimed Tenten angrily.

"Girls are naturally born weaker, but that doesn't mean they can't train to be stronger." said Neji with a shrug, glancing at Sakura.

_THANK you Neji. At least _He'_s not stupid and blind. _

"Oi, whose side are ya on anyways, Neji? What's up with sticking up for the bunch of giggly girls, huh? They look like they couldn't pick up anything heavier than their little purses, right?" he jeered.

"Well you obviously weren't there in first period English or you would've seen me kick Sasuke's ass at arm wrestling," replied Sakura coolly.

"What? A skinny little girl like you beat _Sasuke_? You're lying, Pink."

Sakura jade eyes flashed. "I'm not lying. Ask him." She motioned towards Sasuke with a nod of her head.

Sasuke gave a small "Hn,"

"Some of us 'weak, giggly girls' are stronger than we look. I bet we could beat you guys at any sport, any day. And don't call me Pink," she said disgustedly.

"Yeah? You wanna go?"

"Aww, come on Zaku! Be nice! Sakura-chan really is strong, she did beat Sasuke. And she threw me into a wall hard enough to make it crack!" said Naruto, as if it was something HE should be proud of.

"Stay out of it, Blondie,"

"I don't think any of us mind. We may as well do _something_ physical in PE, so let's play. Basketball. Boys against girls. Then we'll see who the weak ones really are." A girl with long red hair added, smirking.

"Actually, I think this could be rather interesting," said Neji slowly. "I really wonder who would win."

"Alrighty then! Come on guys, lets go!" exclaimed Tenten, excited.

"But there are too many boys, its like 22 to 8, so it's not fair," pointed out a girl named Ayumi.

"We can rotate during the game." Someone said.

"I'll be referee," Shikamaru volunteered in a bored tone.

"Ok then, 5 on each side. Sakura, Tenten, me, Tayuya, and Kari will go first, 'cuz Keiko doesn't do well with basketball. That ok, Ayu?" she asked the other girl sitting there.

Meanwhile, the boys decided to start out with Zaku, Naruto, and 3 other guys, because of their two best players, Sasuke had an ankle injury, which was still healing. And besides, he told them that he refused to participate in their pathetic little quarrel, and Neji said with a rather amused expression that he'd rather watch and see what happens. In about ten minutes, the score was 14-5, in favor of the girls. It was true, they were all a lot better than they looked, and they worked together extremely well, with a good game strategy.

But apparently, the main reason was that they were winning by such a margin was because they more used to having real PE classes, by the ruthless Anko-sensei; when Zaku and the others were all gasping for breath, Tenten and Sakura, who were doing most of the running around and scoring, were barely breathing hard.

"Yeah!" cheered the girls, as they traded hi fives all around. When the bell rang, they all went happily to the locker rooms, chattering and laughing. Sasuke smirked, and muttered "pathetic," before getting up and headed towards the boys locker rooms. Neji was also hiding a smile as he changed. _Well I guess it's not just Sakura who's the strong one either. All of them were pretty good, especially for girls. Of course, I guess it also has something to do with the fact that Zaku and the rest of them all suck, but…_

_**And Tenten looked way hot while running around with a ball right? Get it? With a-**_

_ARGH! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP! _

Neji mentally yelled, trying to block out the loud obnoxious voice in his head. He strode determinedly out the door towards the cafeteria.

"Hmm? You okay, Neji? Your face is kinda red. You have a fever or something?" asked Tenten, popping up out of nowhere from behind him. Neji started a little, but then took a breath, and calmed down. He didn't usually blush as easily as his cousin, Hinata, and he had much better control over himself.

"Oh, no, I think I'm fine." He somehow managed to suppress the pervert in his brain's babbling until it was just a murmur in the back corner of his mind. _You go in there, and STAY there!_ Thought Neji savagely, as he mentally stuffed the inner voice into a box, and locked it firmly.

"Ok then, that's good." She smiled sweetly. As she turned to continue half-skip forward, chatting on about random things. Neji shook his head slightly to get rid of the strange feeling in his chest. _Ugh. Maybe I am coming down with something. I've been feeling weird all day. I'll go home and get some medicine or something…_

_oOo_

Tenten had been coming out of the locker room, impatient at Sakura for taking so long in the showers, and decided to go on ahead, and save them seats in the cafeteria. As she sashayed out the door, still on a high from running around playing basketball, she saw Neji walking up ahead. Smiling to herself, she snuck up on him, wanting to jumpstart him to see if he was ticklish, when she saw his face had a barely conspicuous red tinge. Neji's skin seemed so pale and clear, this seemed unusual.

"Hmm? You okay, Neji? Your face is kinda red. You have like a fever or something?" she inquired. He turned to face her, and she blinked a few times. She'd seen Hinata's eyes enough to not be unnerved by the paleness anymore. Yet she could never seem to get used to how pale and big _his_ were. They drew her in, and she felt herself unconsciously leaning in closer towards those eyes. He had long eyelashes, like a girls almost, except different somehow… and…

"Oh, no, I think I'm fine," he replied, snapping Tenten out of her daze. He smiled a little, and Tenten's breath caught in her throat. Thinking that she probably just imagined the faint red tinge on Neji's face, which was gone now. Suddenly embarrassed, she turned around quickly so he wouldn't see the own blush, and started babbling about lunch and food, and other random things.

oOo

Hinata walked through the hallways quickly, not wanting to trouble the others by making them have to wait for her. As she turned the corner, she saw on the far end of the hall her cousin and Tenten walking together. She was about to quicken her pace and catch up to them, when a not-so-quiet voice called her name.

"Hinata!" shouted the blonde, hair still damp from the showers, jogging through the crowded hallways toward her. Hinata saw him, and instantly turned a bright shade of red.

"N-Naruto-kun," she stammered. Naruto caught up to her at last, and paused, panting. He then looked up, and met her with one of his big grins.

"Hey, Hinata!" he said cheerily, turning to walk with her.

"Hello," she replied shyly.

"I wanted to say sorry again for earlier today. Although it wasn't _my_ fault you kept fainting like that, but it was an accident. And I didn't want you to think I was a jerk and did it on purpose or anything like that."

"Oh, N-no!" protested Hinata, but Naruto had already gone ahead, and turned back to grin and wave at her. Then he bounded away, chanting something that sounded rather like, "Ramen! Ramen!" Hinata was left standing in the middle of the hallway, people streaming by, blushing at how close to her Naruto had been.

"Oh, hey, Hinata! Going to lunch?" came Sakura's voice from behind. Hinata gasped, and spun around, startled. Sakura giggled, and patted her shoulder. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. So, what's up?"

"It's nothing," mumbled the shy girl, losing her stutter with Sakura. "So how were you're classes, Sakura? You had PE, right?" asked Hinata, quickly changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah. Haha, you should've been there, Hinata. We completely wiped the floor with those boys at basketball. You should've seen the look on this one dudes face…" She told Hinata all about their PE class while they walked towards the lunch room.

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**Ugh. I have a feeling that that was a kinda boring chapter. IM SORRY! (lol) review please! I NEED to know what you think! Or I'll go crazy, and not update anymore! (yeah. That's right. Im threatening you. You want more, you review and tell me, otherwise I think everyone hates me. Or it. Whatever. XD )**


	6. Pass the Saucekay

Chapter 6

**Pass the Sauce-kay

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**

Ino had already grabbed a table in the quickly filling lunch room. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino had joined her. Chouji was busy with a huge tray of all sorts of food, and Shikamaru was staring glumly down at a congealed looking slice of pizza, mentally debating all the possible outcomes of his taking a bite out of it. Who knows, it could turn out to be perfectly fine, and taste a whole lot better than it looked. Rather doubtful, but still a possibility. On the other hand, it could turn out to be like the pizza at KoNAB, which tasted like it had been sitting in the freezer for a year and a half, then heated up until it was half thawed, then put on a plate for them to attempt to eat. Ugh, he should have opted for something more edible looking, but _nooo_. Well, at least it _looked_ a little better than the ones at their school, but looks could be misleading… _Ahh, what the hell. It's just a piece of pizza. _He thought, and took a bite.

In the meantime, Ino was sitting across from them, a large salad with an opened packet of ranch leaning against the lid of the container, busily texting away. Shino was just sitting there, off to the side, and apple in his hands. Nobody ever actually saw him bring the apple to his mouth, but every now and then, when Ino looked up, a chunk of it would be gone.

"Hi guys!" shouted Naruto, putting his tray with a bowl of ramen on it next to Chouji.

"Hey Naruto," said Chouji through a mouthful of fries.

"Chouji! Don't talk with your mouth full! That's gross!" Ino told him, snapping her phone shut and slipping it into the purse on the table next to her. "How many times have we been over this?"

"Aww, c'mon, Ino. Don't be so naggy. Especially since we're at the same school now. It's so annoying," muttered Shikamaru, dropping the slice of pizza back onto the plate, only half eaten.

"Tch. And here I was, thinking I'd be nice, and let you guys sit at our table, seeing as how crowded everywhere else is. Geez, what is your problem?"

"Shut up."

"Yea, Ino, shut up, Ino, don't be so naggy, Ino, stop talking, Ino, you're being naggy, Ino," teased Tenten laughing, sliding into the seat next to her with a quick hello to the guys sitting on the other side. Ino glared at her, but then giggled along with her friend, moving her stuff onto the floor.

"I'll be right back, ok? I need to hit the bathrooms." She told Tenten.

"'kay, I'll save your spot," promised Tenten as Ino left.

"Hey Neji." Said Shikamaru, as Neji sat down with them. "You manage to find anything half edible around here?"

"Not really. I thought I'd play it safe by starting out with a sandwich."

"Hn. That was probably a good idea. God, how troublesome. Although I suppose it'd be fair to say that it's better than our school lunches," his voice trailed off.

Tenten wrinkled her nose. "Wow, if it's worse than our pizza, you guys must've had it pretty bad." She giggled. "_Some_ of the food is ok, though. I mean we have a _ton_ of choices."

"Yeah. Man, we never had this much to choose from at once. And the hamburgers taste fine so far." Said Kiba, as he came and sat next to Shino. "Dude, is that _all_ you got?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the lone apple on the tray, almost completely eaten by now.

"Yea. Let's see how well you guys fare, and whether or not you get food poisoning. If not… well, we'll see tomorrow." He replied, a small, rather sinister looking smile showing up on his face.

"You are seriously creepy sometimes, you know that?"

"The fries are also pretty good." added in Chouji. Shikamaru glanced over at his tray. He picked up a potato wedge, and held it up to eye level to inspect doubtfully. He took a careful bite, then popped the rest of it in his mouth. He reached over to take another one. On his way to get a third, Chouji swiped his tray out of reach.

"Get your own." He growled. "You managed to get away with two, because you're my friend, and I've known you since forever. But a guy's gotta draw the line _somewhere_."

Shikamaru raised his hands in surrender, and got up with a groan. "Fine, fine. Where are they anyways?"

"Potato wedges? Over there." Answered Sakura as she and Hinata made their way over, plonking herself down next to Tenten. She looked up with a raised eyebrow. "That _was_ what you're looking for, right?"

"Aa. Thanks." Shikamaru ambled off.

"Wow, Sakura-chan! That's amazing! How did you know?" asked Naruto.

"Eh." She shrugged, as she cracked a can of soda open. "They tend to come across as the safest thing to eat, especially on your first time eating the crappy food around here."

"Haha. Oi! Sasuke! Finally. Over here!" called Naruto suddenly, over the din of the lunch room, waving his arms in the air. Sasuke quickly walked over, shoulders tense, eyes cast down, (an angry vein mark popping on his forehead,) seemingly ignoring the masses of girls, giggling, staring, pointing, and nudging their friends as he walked by their tables. Every now and then, one of the braver ones would step up to him (with a pack behind her, of course), and open her mouth to say something. Sasuke, however, didn't even give them a chance, and determinedly barged through, following his beacon of light and hope (Naruto's head, which most certainly did stand out), who was waving and laughing his head off. While sorely tempted to shut Naruto up by knocking his ass into next week, the thought of having to stop while the swarm of girls engulfed him was enough to make Sasuke resist, although his lunch tray came down with a little more force than necessary as he finally sank into a seat at their table, slumping down over his lunch, muttering about idiots who couldn't keep their hands to themselves, and so-called-friends who _had_ to pick a table so goddamn far away, and sat there laughing while a comrade's life's were in danger.

"Huh. So, Sasuke, meet any girls ya like yet?" asked Kiba innocently. Sasuke glared up at him, where he smiled back angelically.

"Fucking school." He muttered, angrily stuffing a bite of burger in his mouth.

"Now, now, Sasuke, let's watch our language here," smirked Neji.

"Why, were you mobbed?" interrupted Tenten, as she swirled a carrot stick in ranch, trying, but failing to keep a grin off her face.

"Hn." _None of your goddamn business. Why are we sitting with a bunch of girls?_

"Don't worry, we're not like the scary, flirty, air brained twits, 'cept for maybe Ino. But at least she doesn't stoop to fan-girlism. Much." smirked Sakura, guessing (correctly) at the subtle look that flashed over Sasuke's face.

"'scuse me. _What_ was that, Forehead?" mock-snarled Ino as she came back to her seat.

"Nothing, my dear Ino-pig. Nothing at all." Grinned her friend, as she slid over to make room.

"Yea, that's what I thought. Oh yeah, hey, Sasuke-kun?" said Ino as she sat down, sparing only a fraction of a second to throw a quick, unwelcoming glare at Kiba.

"Ugh. Don't call me that," Sasuke half-groaned through a burger. Ino looked surprised.

"Huh? Why n-?" A look of understanding suddenly flashed over her face when Sakura tilted her head to indicate the number of eyes glaring at her, Ino, Tenten, even Hinata, for being the only girls sitting so close to Sasuke.

"Ohh. Right, well anyways, if _anyone_, especially a, err, how exactly did you so charmingly put it, Forehead? 'Flirty, air brained twit'?" Her eyes flickered around the girls watching them, "…yeah…a little helpful advice, if any one of them asks you where you locker is, be sure that you lie through your teeth, and tell them that it's somewhere on the opposite side of the campus."

That got her some strange glances from the boys, while Tenten snorted, Hinata giggled, and Sakura shook her head from side to side.

"Hmm. So why are we encouraging people to screw the whole honesty thing?" asked Kiba with a skeptical expression.

Ino sneered while squeezing dressing over her salad. "Not that it's any of my business (or yours, for that matter), but in case you hadn't noticed, your dear friend Sasuke there is being a bit harassed by the more frightening percentage of the populace at your lovely new school. I just thought 'Sauce-kay-_kuuuuun_,'" she did a perfect imitation, and Sasuke winced. "…might like some advanced notice that he has, apparently, already gained rabid fangirls from around the school on his first day here, and that they happen to be in the bathrooms planning what kind of chocolates to get him and the best strategies to get him to notice them. I mean, _I_ wouldn't want those creepy chicks following me and stuffing presents into _my_ locker, but…" Sasuke was sinking lower and lower into his seat.

"C-could it have b-been Mina and her friends?" asked Hinata timidly.

"Yep. The very same," Affirmed Ino, before stabbing some lettuce and a crouton and stuffing it in her mouth.

"Ugh, you poor, poor, soul," groaned Sakura, just as Tenten muttered, "I wouldn't wish _her_ on my worst enemy."

"Who's-"started Naruto, but was interrupted.

"Sauce-kay-_kuuuuunn_!" sang out an obnoxious, girly voice.

"Speak of the devil," muttered Tenten.

"Tch. The devil. I bet even he wouldn't want to have to deal with that brat."

A group of girls walked over, tossing their hair and giggling loudly, bunched together behind a leader who was obviously Mina. Neji raised an eyebrow. He could kinda tell right off the bat that there must have been some sort of hierarchy going on here. They seemed different than the girls they'd encountered in the hall that morning. First, there was Mina herself, who carried herself as if she were the queen of the school. Perfectly layered, wavy blonde hair ran down to her back, her skin was flawless and tanned, with slightly too much makeup. She was wearing a tiny skirt short enough that it could hardly be considered a skirt with a tight white tank top with rhinestones all over it, all topped off with matching pink jeweled earrings and necklace, a tiny, sparkly, pink designer purse, and little strappy heels even more skimpy than Ino's. On either side were two girls, whose looks couldn't be more contrasted. One was much shorter, and stockier, with almost curly platinum blonde hair that went to her shoulders, and the other a really tall, stick-like girl, with really tan skin and pin-straight black brown hair, and various girls positioned behind them. Mina went over to Sasuke's seat and threw her arms around his shoulders, which immediately tensed up.

"Saskay-kun! I've missed you! But wait, we last saw each other in the hall like, ten minutes ago!" she giggled loudly, trying (but failing rather miserably, in Neji's mind) to sound flirty.

"Hi, Mina!" exclaimed Sakura sweetly, pointedly ignoring the fact that the girl was only talking to Sasuke. "How _are_ you? Omigod, we haven't seen you around in like, _forever_, have we?" she asked her friends around the table.

"Yeah! You never call, you never even like, _text_." added Ino in a mockingly nasal voice.

"Or _talk_." muttered Tenten under her breath sarcastically. She knew Ino and Sakura were talking like "twits" on purpose. They, having gone through even elementary school with Mina, knew how to play the game. Tenten, who had transferred there about a year ago, had less tolerance for the girl, but knew that around her, she had to speak carefully or not at all. Mina may look and act completely stupid, but most of the girls at their school knew that it was _not_ the case. She was a genius at deceiving people, finding weaknesses, and using things to her advantage while maintaining an innocent front in sight of teachers.

"Oh. Hey Ino!" replied Mina, as if she had just now notice that there were actually _other _people sitting at the table. "Oh, I _love_ your outfit today, Sakura! it's like so…um…_vintage_. Wait, that _is_ the word for, like, _old_ looking, right?" she asked the girls behind her, and they snickered.

_Bitch_. "Thanks! I love yours too! It's very…" Sakura let her voice trail off, and then picked up again. "Well, it's great to see you again, Mina. Thanks for dropping by. See you later!" she said, falsely cheerful, making it a point to very clearly wave goodbye.

"Yeah. _See you around,_ guys," added Ino, wiggling her fingers at the group of girls.

"Oh, yeah, of course. Actually, I came over to talk to my _boyfriend_ here," with that, she gave Sasuke's shoulders a squeeze. Shikamaru and Chouji (both whom were only half listening) choked on their food, and the ramen Naruto was eating went spewing all over the table. Neji turned to hide his face, which was twitching slightly, a corner of him mouth tugging upwards and threatening to crack into a wide grin, while Kiba, unable to hold it in any longer, just burst out laughing.

Obviously offended, Mina pouted. "What's the matter, boys?" she asked, clinging to Sasuke even more tightly than before. Sasuke twisted out of her grip, and glared at her frostily.

"Look. I don't know what kind of crack you're on, but I don't ever recall telling you to talk to me, or even come anywhere near me, so I kindly ask you not to do either. Wait," he growled as she opened her mouth to speak. "no, let me rephrase that. _Don't_ talk to me, and _don't_ come anywhere near me, and just leave me the _fuck_ alone."

She looked a little baffled at his sudden coldness, but recovered quickly.

"Oh, al_right_ Sauce-kay, I can tell you're just not _comfortable_ with a girl as glamorous as me that you just barely met." Kiba started laughing again, but she ignored him. "But don't worry sweetheart, I'll wait for you, until you're ready, ok?" her smile was the very essence of innocence and sweetness; Neji thought it was rather like poisoned honey. She flounced off, her pack of girls following like mindless, giggling robots.

_God, what've I done to deserve this?_ Groaned Sasuke inwardly.

"God has a twisted sense of humor, eh?" said Sakura, a mixture of amusement, irritation at Mina, and a knowing look on her face. Sasuke looked at her in surprise, which made Hinata giggle.

"You'll learn to g-get used to Sakura and her amazing, psychic, mind reading abilities," she explained in her soft, gentle voice.

"Although it's a bitch-and-a-half when you're trying to hide something," muttered Ino under her breath.

"Aww, such _vulgar_ language, Ino," laughed Sakura, gently smacking her friend on the arm. Ino yelped, and playfully slapped her back. "For someone with the vocabulary as big as you do, you sure do curse a lot."

"Tch. As if you're in any position to talk, forehead girl,"

"Besides," continued Sakura, ignoring Ino's loving nickname. "Just 'cuz you're such a sneaky little gossip, someone's gotta keep track of you and put you in your place."

"Ugh. We still have ten minutes left. I'm outta here." said Sasuke, getting up to throw the garbage away.

"Hey, Teme! What class d'you have next?" asked Naruto.

"Calculus." He replied curtly. "You and Shino have that next too, right?" he asked Neji.

Neji sighed quietly, and got up. "Yeah. I'll go with you. I'm done, and I don't want to stay here either. Coming?" he asked Shino, who wordless got up, tray and apple having both already disappeared. Tenten looked at him strangely.

"Where'd you tray and stuff go?" she asked.

"Garbage," he said emotionlessly, and proceeded to follow Neji and Sasuke across the room. All four girls looked after him incredulously. _When did he get up to throw it in the garbage?_

"It's another one of those things you need to get used to," explained Kiba, as he too got up and stretched. "Sort of like how Chouji's always eating, or Sakura's "Amazing, psychic abilities", or Barbie's bitchings over there."

Ino's head snapped around, and her eyes narrowed. "I don't suppose you're referring to _me_, are you, bastard?"

Kiba nonchalantly shrugged and sauntered away. "Who knows? Could be anyone."

Ino glared. "That _ass_,"

Shikamaru chuckled, finishing off the last of his potatoes, offering the rest of his soda to Chouji, who politely declined. Shrugging, he chugged what was left, and got up as well.

"What's so funny?" demanded Ino.

"Probably thinking something along the lines of how 'Barbie's bitchings' is a new one, and storing it away for future reference," answered Chouji without even glancing up. Before Ino could snarl something back, Sakura intervened.

"Now, now, my dear, learn to take a joke, or you'll get wrinkles all over your face when you get old."

They all looked at her blankly.

"'Wrinkles', Sakura?" asked Tenten with a raised eyebrow.

"Basically, she's saying that you need to control your anger or else you'll end up destroying school property like Godzilla there," said Kiba, walking by, on his way out, laughing light heartedly. Sakura's grin froze in place.

oOo

Neji, Sasuke, and Shino were in the hallways, hanging out while waiting for the bell to ring so they could go into the classroom (which they had actually FOUND thanks to an extremely detailed map and frighteningly precise, step by step instructions from Sakura), when they heard a loud, rumbling sound. Turning around, the three of them watched a figure zoom past, shouting and laughing, and disappearing around the corner.

"Is it just me, or did that look kind of like Kiba…?" asked Neji dryly.

"Probably mouthed off to Sakura or Ino or someone after we left," said Sasuke indifferently, dismissing it as nothing of interest. "You know how he gets. Worse than the Dobe."

"Are you sure? It could be he's just gone crazy and is running around the school like a maniac from being away from Akamaru for so long. They kicked him out this morning. You know how he hates being away from that mangy dog for more than a few hours." said Shino.

Suddenly, there was another rumbling sound, as a cloud of dust rose up from the end of the hall.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" bellowed two voices, and Sakura and Ino dash past. "WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

They were sprinting rather quickly, possibly faster than Kiba himself, although he did have the advantage of a head start. The three guys stood there, speechlessly, listening to Kiba's hoots and laughter, and the girls shouting and raging, until Sasuke finally broke the silence, shaking his head.

"Tch. Told you."

* * *

**REVIEW! PLEASE! Or I will seriously just let this die altogether :S**


	7. Hah! That's a Likely Story

**Chapter 7**

**Hah! That's a Likely Story

* * *

**Her math class went by rather quickly. Tenten was one of the oldest girls in the room, but being used to it, she didn't really mind; in fact, she was even pretty close with a few of the underclassmen, who teased her good naturedly about her math skills (or lack thereof).

Much to her surprise, however, she found Lee (the Guy who looked like Gai. Ha, ha.) sitting in the front of the room. When he saw her, he gave her a solemn salute, and greeted her very formally. Tenten giggled, and waved back. The whole period, their teacher went over the math book they were using for the sake of the new, male editions to the class, and assigned a short review packet home with them, just to make sure they were all on the same page. It wasn't until 6th period, where everyone she'd sat with at lunch, as well as several other people were in, that things started getting noisy.

"Home Ec? What the hell? We didn't have this at _our_ school!" said (shouted) Kiba rather loudly.

"Well, neither did this one, until today," explained Iruka sensei patiently. "It's a new and permanent edition to our curriculum. Tsunade-sama, after a conference with all the teachers, agreed to integrate a-"

"Why do we need the class for anyways? All women's work…" muttered Shikamaru, suppressing a yawn.

"SHIKAMARU, YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!" hollered Ino, already in a bad mood from having to deal with yet _another_ class she shared in common with Kiba.

"Will we be able to eat in this class?" asked Chouji over the noise.

"Pfft. Only the stuff you make yourself," said Sasuke, rolling his eyes.

"OOH! THEN LET'S MAKE RAMEN!" shouted Naruto excitedly. THUNK.

"Ow! Teme! What'd you do that for?"

"What do you do in Home Ec, anyways?" asked Tenten.

"Stop being such an idiot, dobe."

"How was I being an idiot, you bastard? And why did you hit me? It hurt!"

Neji sighed. "I don't know, but probably like, cooking, sewing, cleaning-"

"Also things like financing, finding careers and managing money and stuff too. Just basically anything you might need to know in order to survive on your own." Put in Sakura. She grinned at Neji. "You used to live by yourself, right Hyuga-san? Hinata told us about it."

"Ooh, we're making ramen in this class? I'll eat ALL of it!"

"Oh! I would like some too! Ramen is so YOUTHFUL AND NOURISHING!"

"Oh did you?" Neji replied, glaring terrifying cold daggers at Hinata. She, sitting a row ahead and two seats over, squeaked, and ducked her head.

"S-sorry…" she stammered.

"Chouji, Lee, you guys are _not_ allowed to eat all of the ramen. Think of how the others would feel. Think of how _I _would feel. Besides, Narut-"

"Damnit Shikamaru! Don't just turn your head and ignore me! I'm talking to you!"

"Hn." Neji replied, looking away, expression normal once again. "I was _kidding_ Hinata." She blushed, and started to apologize again. Tenten laughed and leaned forward to wrap her arms around the girl's shoulders in a teasing hug.

"Class! Please, settle down-" Iruka sensei feebly tried to regain his class's focus.

"Why should I even bother listening, there's nothing worth listening to-"

"WHAT?" shrieked Ino, and started pummeling Shikamaru with her fists.

"Shut up, Kiba, nobody CARES how you feel-"

"No, youthful Kiba-kun is right! How could we be so thoughtless, my friends? As punishment, let's run 50 laps around-"

"Hey, Ino, love, maybe you should stop," said Tenten, trying (rather unsuccessfully) to hide a smirk as she went over to where her blonde friend was still hitting Shikamaru over the head and his shoulders, his arms raised up, trying to block her blows.

"You're such a dobe. Why do you only think about ramen? Maybe this is why your grades are so bad-"

"So where did you live? You're only 16 or 17, right?" Sakura asked Neji curiously.

"You guys! Please, stop talking! Class has started already,"

"Lee, dude, chill. You seriously don't need to run around this friggin' huge school just because-"

"But I wanted RAMEN! It's not my fault that the tests are too stupid for me!"

"Yes, but my uncle offered to pay the bills, and allow me to continue staying in the house I was living in with my father until he died, and my father left an account with enough money to buy food and clothes and things until I'm of age for the inheritance, so…"

"Waitasec. _Who's_ too stupid for _who_ again, dobe?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "Wow. Sorry," Neji shrugged, as if it were no big deal.

"No! I must fulfill my promise, or I could not possibly live with myself! My honor would be scorned!"

"If you say so. But don't expect me to be doing any laps around anything with anyone." said Chouji, reaching into a bag of chips.

"D-didn't father hire a housekeeper for you Neji?" asked Hinata, turning around. She smiled slightly. "I heard from one of the maids she came storming into our house shouting something about being fired, and disrespected by a snot nosed brat or something."

"Whoa, you guys have _maids_?" interrupted Kiba, astounded. "I knew your family was rich and all, but jeez," he said, looking at Neji.

"Ok, Ino. My arms are getting sore now, you can stop already."

"Yes, well," said Neji, his eyes hardening. "It's an extremely rich, provided household, but they're all too stuck up on old fashion ideals and outdated protocols that its difficult to get anything _real_ done."

"Oh, wow. That's-"

"SHUT UUUUUPPP!" roared a woman in the doorway at the top of her lungs. They all turned to look at the two teachers blankly.

"Thank you Shizune-san. _Anyways," _said Iruka into the shock-induced silence. "As we were about to say, this class is a combination of first and second years, focused on a unique curriculum new to our educational program. Every other day, you will get a free period, in other words _study_ hall." He put an emphasis on the word and glared at the boys especially. "This will also be counted as your homeroom period, in which announcements and class activities will be conducted. I will be here to oversee all of you. If anyone misbehaves or is too loud, they will be sent to the office, where they can do their work in Tsunade-sama's office. On B days, you will have Shizune-sensei here to teach Home Ec; cooking, cleaning, sewing, money management, financing, taking care of families, anything else you might need to know to survive the world on your own." Sakura and Neji smirked at each other. "Any questions? Yes Naruto,"

"Will we be making ramen?"

"Perhaps in our cooking unit. I'm not sure." Shizune told him.

"Ooh, cool! I want a beef bowl-"

"Just go to the ramen shop down the street, you idiot. God," said Kiba, rolling his eyes.

"Any _other_ questions?" interrupted Shizune. "Good." She continued, without giving them a chance to speak. "Now, I need a volunteer to pass out the class syllabus…"

oOo

"Uwaaaaaaah, finally!" said Tenten with a satisfied stretch. The bell had (finally) rung, freeing them Jiraya's confusing, embarrassing introduction lecture about the true meaning of literature (most of the class had their heads hidden in their hands, or were sinking as low in their seats as they could go. Tenten had watched their sensei talk with a puzzled expression on her face while Neji stared stonily ahead, not meeting anyone's eye). "Thank goodness we won't ever have so many classes in one day again."

"What do you mean?" asked a surprised Neji as the two gathered their bags and walked out into the noisy, crowded hallways.

"Holy crap, there are so many people," muttered the smaller girl, before returning his gaze with equal surprise. "Whadoya mean what do I mean? Block schedule starting tomorrow. I think it'll probably be a B day…"

So that was why the schedule had been so confusing. All the boys had been wondering how anyone could survive taking twelve classes every day. "So we have…six periods a day?"

"Mhm. Every other day. Wait then how did you guys do it?"

"Nin Academy had seven classes every day, but three trimesters of different class schedules, which I guess your school doesn't have," he explained to her with a shrug. "The workload was insane, but we had shorter class times, I suppose,"

By now, he was leaning down to talk directly into her ear, as the level of noise in the hallways escalated. She tried not to think about it, but there was a little part of her shivering in delight at the deep, soothing vibrations of his voice against her cheek. Instead, she grabbed his forearm so they wouldn't get separated, and dragged the two of them off to a less crowded, side stairwell.

"Man, a couple hundred new students really do make a difference," laughed Tenten, and she turned to face the Hyuga with a playful grin. "So where you off to now, Neji? My excellent directional skills are at your disposal."

Neji couldn't help but feel his lips twitch up. Despite knowing each other for so little time, he, and most of the other guys, already knew how bad Tenten was with directions. She even got slightly confused in her own school sometimes.

"Actually I was thinking of calling Hinata and seeing if she needed someone to walk home with her. I might be moving in with them in a few days so I need to speak with my uncle about it."

Tenten nodded. "Yeah, she mentioned something like that. Let me know if you need any help moving," She started a little at the sensation of her phone buzzing in her pocket. Fishing it out, she slid it open and put it to her ear.

"Yeah, Sakura? I'm on the second floor right now, where're you? Uh huh…help you? With what? Ohhhh, haha again? Yeah sure we'll be right down," she motioned with her head for Neji to follow her down the stairs. "Oh it's just me and Neji. Is Hinata with you? Oh okay then, see you in a bit." She jumped down the rest of the stairs and looked up at Neji expectantly. "Sakura said Hinata's down here too so we should go find them. You need to go to your locker or anything first?"

He shrugged. All his notebooks and binders where in his bag, and he was carrying most of the text books. "Not really."

"'Kay, well, let's go rescue Sakura then before she accidentally murders someone. Apparently your friends are there too, and everybody's acting up again, and she says she's the only sane one there. Which is really pretty funny if you think about it…" She laughed loudly as the two of them walked in the direction of the raucous shouting and shrieks (that sounded an awful lot like Ino) they could already hear from several hallways away.

oOo

The days passed in a blur, students of both genders getting used to the new environment of the school with so many extra students. By the end of the month, Tenten felt like she'd known these boys for her whole life. They had so many classes together she was able to learn each of their individual little quirks, the same way they were learning hers, and the other girls'.

Shikamaru, for example, always seemed to be either yawning, complaining, or sleeping. Tenten found it amazing he even bothered getting up to go to school everyday at seven thirty in the morning (then again, he was often as late as Kakashi, loping into English scant seconds before their perpetually tardy Sensei). More often than not, he would find a desk in the very back and immediately drop his head onto his forearms for another nap, until he was forced by the bell to relocate, and repeat the whole process. Tenten had never seen anyone sleep so much in her life.

And yet, every time they got their test or quiz results back, Shikamaru would always have at minimum, a 100%. He even got extra credit for the extra information and "exemplary structure" (whatever that meant, laughed Tenten in her head). She found out from Neji that the lazy Genius Boy could have technically graduated from high school two years ago, but had been so unmotivated that he put it off and ended up doing the regular high school courses with everyone else. As it were, everyone begged/payed/bribed him for homework help in all their classes.

Then there was Shikamaru's best friend, Chouji, who always appeared to have a bag of chips (and took _serious_ offense at being called...the "F-word"). One would marvel at the fact that he seemed to carry around such a large stock of snacks every day. But upon careful observation, Tenten realized that he really only had two bags each day, one for before lunch, and one after (he'd shown them to her too. They were actually heart-healthy, whole wheat, low-sodium baked crisps. Sakura had ardently approved). He just seemed to have an amazing ability to ration the bag equally between the three hours before and after lunch. Ino told them that it was a childhood habit.

"The teachers always got mad at him for bringing too many snacks in kindergarten," she said airly, concentrating on painting her left pinky blue. She held up her hand to admire her handiwork. "Sensei told him to only bring two, so he figured out a way to make them last the whole day."

"Woww, that's pretty impressive," said the bun-haired girl, looking up from her spanish homework on Ino's bed. "How can one measly bag chips last someone for three hours?" She shook her head. "At least have something more substantial, like a sandwich or something-"

"Tenten dear, only _you_ would think to bring in a chicken Panini from home and eat it in second period as a snack, right BEFORE lunch,"

"Shut up, Sakura! I get hungry! Wait so Ino, you went to kindergarten with Chouji?" Tenten was always curious, and loved hearing her friends tell stories about the past, before they all became friends.

"Yeah, lazy-butt Nara too. I also went to the same elementary as those two. Didn't meet Forehead girl here 'til middle school." she said, throwing a knowing smirk at Sakura. "Poor little pinky, such an outcast because of her ugly hair and violent temper, sitting all alone, every day, by herself until I swooped in, and-"

"Oh shut up Ino-Pig!" came the snorting reply. "It's not like you had any friends in middle school either!" She turned to Tenten with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "Ino was so scary in middle school! All the girls were intimidated as hell-"

"Not my fault I have no patience for stupid chicks," threw in Ino, sticking her nose in the air, trying to look haughty.

"…And she wore this crazy, catty eyeliner-"

"Hey! Don't diss my makeup! Just because I _had_ a sense of style back then-"

"And she was like, the _gang_ leader of this harem of boys who obeyed her every command-"

At that, Ino laughed. "Okay, I'll admit, that part _was_ a little crazy." She turned to Tenten. "Yeah, I really didn't have any girl friends back then, and I'll _admit_," she glared at Sakura, who winked back cheekily. "–that I WAS a little messed up back then." She pointed an accusatory finger at the pink haired girl, who stared back innocently. "But YOU weren't exactly spotless either, Miss 'The-world-is-out-to-get-me-so-damn-if-I-don't-fight-back'."

Tenten was rolling around on the bed in laughter. She had heard this part of the story before. Apparently, Sakura and Ino both appeared to be quite the middle school delinquents back then. Ino, who had been much less social, and more reserved than she was now, really did have a bunch of tough-looking guys following her around everywhere (she claimed it was because nobody else was brave enough be friends with them, the poor dears). And while they never actually did anything _bad_, or illegal, per se, their very presence, and united front behind Ino had everyone – teachers, students, staff members – terrified of them. Ino had entertained them all with stories of how some of 'her boys' were actually super sweet, and had "these adorable crushes" on the good girls, but frightened everyone so much with their serious faces that all their attempts to do good deeds (or to confess their feelings) had been misunderstood.

Sakura, on the other hand, had been the loner, openly defiant of her teachers, of classes, homework, school rules, and other students. She hated all the boys, and hated all the female students, thinking that all girls were selfish hypocrites and two-faced in front of different people. Because of this attitude, and her tendency to mouth off without care for consequences, she was often the target of petty, middle school bullying.

Which, in the end, only reinforced her twisted belief.

When she and Ino first met, Sakura had said apparently something snide about Ino ("Don't call me Blondie!" she shrieked, to Tenten's extreme entertainment). Ino had responded by promptly punching her in the face. The two got into a gigantic cat fight and was rewarded with detention together every day for the rest of the term. Ironically, this ended being how the two became such good friends (Tenten shook her head, amused and more than a little perplexed. These girls were so weird).

So apparently, in the end, Sakura and Ino teamed up to make up for each other's faults, Sakura probably being Ino's first REAL female friend ever, and Ino slowly convincing Sakura that it was okay not to hate everything.

"…And that's why you can't blame Freddie. Which reminds me," said Ino, breaking Tenten from her reverie. "So, Tenten, dearest. What's the story with you and a certain sexy, white-eyed cousin of Hinata's?" She smirked when Tenten widened her eyes and turned a little pink.

"Wh-what do you mean, Ino?"

"Oh don't play dumb Tennie, you two are ALWAYS together and we KNOW Neji doesn't just hang around any girl he doesn't think is…special…" she had on a sly expression that Tenten really, really did not like.

"Well, I mean, we're friends, so-"

"HAH! A LIKELY story!" She had pounced onto the bed, looming over a terrified Tenten, looking very much like a cat that just caught the canary.

"Ino," interrupted Sakura, looking like she was trying not to laugh. "Maybe we should give them some space instead of meddling…"

"Shut up Forehead! If we leave them alone, NOTHING interesting is ever going to happen!"

"Glad I'm here for your entertainment," muttered Tenten, as she turned back to her homework. "Wouldn't it be more fun to pick on Hinata anyway?" _Everyone_, except perhaps a few of the slower boys, and the hyperactive blond himself, knew about Hinata's gigantic crush on Naruto. The poor girl fell to pieces every time he came within hearing distance.

"She's just as bad as you!" Ino flapped her hand derisively as she jumped off the bed, exasperated by her friends. "I love that girl to bits, but she _really_ needs to have some self confidence to match that hot body of hers!"

"Maybe if you gave her like…two-thirds of yours, everybody would be perfect," said Sakura with a smirk, taking out her gigantic Biology book from her backpack on the floor. "You know, balance out the proportion of confidence and 'hot body' a bit. Ahh!" She shrieked when Ino threw a chair cushion at her. She grabbed the pillow and chucked it back. Ino dodged to the side and the cushion hit Tenten square in the face.

"Hey!"

"Haha oops! Sorry Tennie-cha-"

"Ah! Tenten! What are you doing? Leave Pumba alone!"

"Sorry, but Pumba is taking a one way trip to…DIVINE RETRIBUTION!" Tenten threw a stuffed pig like a baseball at Sakura's head.

Scrambling up, the girls all started screaming and laughing, chasing each other around the room until one of Ino's brothers came in looking pissed off and stiffly asked them to be quiet.

oOo

When she finally got home that night, Sakura fell face first onto her bed, tempted to remain in that position forever, until she finally had to shift her head because she couldn't breathe.

She loved her friends, and she loved laughing and joking with them about their past, but she was glad they never asked about before she and Ino had met. Sakura went through great pains to forget, and move on, but seeing Sasuke again…

She closed her eyes and forced down a sudden wave of shame.

"You are _not_ that girl anymore," she whispered to herself fiercely, trying to keep her breathing under control.

She jumped at a sudden loud buzzing sound, and looked up to see her phone vibrating on the desk, signifying a text. Crawling across the bed, she grabbed it and flipped it open. Speak of the devil.

_I'm bored. What page did the Calc homework begin on?_

Shaking her head wryly at his perfect timing, Sakura quickly typed back a reply.

_You do Calculus in your spare time? (p.47-52)_

She laid her head back against the pillow with a sigh, staring at the ceiling. The phone tickled her hand when he replied again.

_What, you don't? _

_Finished already ^_^ Got back from a "study session" with some_  
_friends. You should try it sometime. They're _very_ effective._

_I'm sure. But you're not friends with the Dobe. _

_Yes, well actually I was being rather sarcastic, thank you._

_Welcome. What are you doing?_

She replied, and tried not to snatch her phone up too eagerly when it buzzed again.

* * *

**For everyone actually FOLLOWING this story, so sorry for taking so long to update! The other chapters have been rewritten a bit, just so you know. (I've come to realize just how much my writing style has changed in the past few years O. o) **

**Actually I really just continued this chapter out of curiosity. What do you think? Is it worth continuing? :S**

**PLEASE REVIEW, or I will NOT be motivated at all to continue the story Dx**


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